South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Saturday proposed the "strategic nexus" between the Group of 20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), saying the summit-level economic forums share the same goal of spurring global growth.
"I think the strategic nexus is possible as there are many similarities between APEC's new growth strategy and the G-20's policy of strong,
sustainable and balanced growth," Lee said in his remarks at the first-day session of the APEC meeting in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo.
Taking place back-to-back with the G-20 Seoul Summit, the weekend forum, under the theme of "Change and Action," brought together the leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies, also including the U.S., China and Russia.
About half of the APEC members do not belong to the G-20, a club of the world's most industrialized and emerging nations.
Lee used his speech at the APEC to brief the non-G-20 members on the results of the two-day Seoul session that ended Friday, according to his
spokeswoman Kim Hee-jung.
In their Seoul talks, the G-20 leaders agreed to avoid competitive currency devaluations and formulate guidelines to balance current accounts
by next year. They also agreed on detailed measures for the reform of the International Monetary Fund and establishment of a global financial safety net aimed at protecting emerging economies from sudden capital flow.
Lee told fellow leaders of the APEC members that there were worries over a failure of any agreement as a sense of crisis has been fading, the spokeswoman said.
"But it is fortunate (for the G-20 leaders) to have hammered out accords based on concession and compromise," the president was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, this year's APEC session will focus on creating regional economic integration and moving forward the stalled trade talks of the Doha round, officials said.
Participants also plan to review the implementation of the Bogor Goals, adopted in 1994 to create a system of free trade and investment activities in the Pacific Rim region. They are scheduled to issue a joint statement on
Sunday summarizing the outcome of their discussions.
Lee had bilateral talks with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera on the APEC summit's sidelines, in which they agreed to expand cooperation in the
energy and infrastructure fields.
On Sunday, Lee is scheduled to hold one-on-one summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Seoul-Tokyo relations and regional security.
On the occasion of their meeting, the two sides plan to sign a pact on the transfer of some of Korea's historic artifacts, including Korea's
centuries-old royal books that Japan took away during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
In August, Kan promised to return those historic and cultural assets to Seoul, apparently as part of efforts to improve the neighboring countries' relations often marred by territorial claim and Tokyo's attempt to whitewash its wartime past.
In a telephone dialogue earlier this week, the foreign ministers of the two sides agreed that a total of 1,205 volumes of Korean archives will be repatriated.
Lee is to return to Seoul on Sunday afternoon.