Aquino, Xi to sit beside each other during APEC Summit

APEC logo (Twitter photo)

MANILA – Due to the ‘troika,’ President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will be seated beside Chinese President Xi Jinping during this year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit to be held next week in the Philippines.

APEC 2015 National Organizing Council director general Ambassador Marciano Paynor then saw this as an opportunity for the two presidents to discuss territorial disputes on the sidelines of the annual gathering should they opt to do so.

“We have what we call a troika and this is a normal practice amongst APEC economies who are hosting. Usually in the middle is the host, previous host, future host and that’s the so-called troika and normally they are seated together… China was the previous host,” Paynor said in a press conference.

“So the opportunity for the President and President Xi Jinping will always be there if they wish to talk about issues that are bilateral in nature,” he added.

It can be noted that the Philippines is the host of this year’s APEC Summit. Aquino will then be seated together with Xi, with China as the previous host of APEC, and Peru President Ollanta Humala, as Peru will be the host of next year’s assembly.