A total of 20 head of states including United States President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin have confirmed their attendance at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Manila from November 18 to 19.

This was confirmed by Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras on Wednesday, Philstar reported.

“President Putin is coming, all have confirmed basically except China. We’re still waiting for a confirmation from China. Everyone else is more or less confirmed already,” Almendras said.
Among APEC’s current 21 member states, only China is yet to confirm.

APEC currently has 21 members:

• Australia
• Brunei Darussalam
• Canada
• Chile
• People’s Republic of China
• Hong Kong, China
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Republic of Korea
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Peru
• Philippines
• Russia
• Singapore
• Chinese Taipei
• Thailand
• United States
• Vietnam

Massive preparations for the security of world leaders are now being laid down by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP). Col. Restituto Padilla, AFP spokesperson, assured that there is no security threat to the security of the APEC.

“It’s safe to say that we have 21 heads of economies coming in so it’s 21 times more security preparations,” Joint Task Force National Capital Region deputy commander Col. Vic Tomas said.

Source: philstar.com