SHANGHAI (Islamweb & News Agencies) - President Bush gave a boost on Saturday to Qatar's plans to press ahead with a crucial trade meeting next month despite concerns about security in the Middle East as Washington's war against terrorism unfolds.
Speculation hardened that the venue would be shifted from the Gulf State when Pacific Rim ministers omitted to mention Doha, the capital of Qatar, in a statement on Thursday affirming the importance of launching a global round of market-opening negotiations at the November 9-13 talks. Singapore, which hosted the WTO's first ministerial meeting in December 1996, has already offered to act as a ``spare tire'' and play host to the meeting if need be. But Qatar, a key ally of the United States, has insisted the meeting will go ahead.
``We must...launch a new global trade round in November in Doha,'' Bush told a business conference on the sidelines of this weekend's summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
``We're committed to the goal of a world that lives and trades in freedom and we must meet any challenge that stands in our way. There's much more to be done and all of us -- every nation -- must redouble our efforts to see that Doha is a success,'' he said.
NEXT WTO HEAD BACKS DOHA
Worries about traveling to Qatar have grown in the wake of U.S.-led strikes against Afghanistan.
But Qatar's envoy to the U.N. was quoted on Friday as saying that to shift the venue would be to play into the hands of the terrorists that Washington has vowed to hunt down.
``If this conference is not held in Qatar, then there could be negative repercussions...that could be considered as directed against Arab and Muslim countries, which could lead to attempts to link Islam and Arabs to terrorism,'' the official Qatar News Agency quoted Ambassador Nasser bin Abdel Aziz al-Nasser as adding.
Qatar won a vote of confidence at the APEC forum from the next head of the 142-member WTO.
Former Thai deputy prime minister Supachai Panitchpakdi, who takes over as WTO director-general next year, appealed to governments to put aside any second thoughts about meeting in Doha. (Read photo caption below)
Qatar had invested much time and money in preparing for the meeting, and countries in the Middle East especially were looking forward to meeting in the Gulf state.
The planned trade round has been in limbo since a meeting of WTO ministers in Seattle in 1999 ended in acrimony against a backdrop of rioting by anti-capitalism protesters.
PHOTO CAPTION:
World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General-Designate Supachai Panitchpakdi gives a speech before business leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit in Shanghai Saturday Oct. 20, 2001. Panitchpakdi spoke about the future of the global trading system. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)