SINGAPORE - Myanmar, climate change and trade are likely to dominate discussions at this week's East Asia Summit, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.
Miss Clark leaves tomorrow night for the summit in Singapore - her first stop on a 12-day trip that takes in the Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting in Uganda, a sustainable development conference in Germany and the official opening of New Zealand's embassy in Cairo.
Items on the summit agenda include energy security, climate change and a progress report on a study into the benefits of a European Union-style East-Asia-wide free trade deal.
But those issues could be overshadowed by a push to condemn Myanmar's recent brutal crackdown on political unrest.
Myanmar, which is part of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), is expected to attend the summit.
Miss Clark said she would be lobbying other summit members - which also include China, India, South Korea, Japan and Australia - to ratchet up diplomatic pressure to ensure Myanmar continued to engage with the United Nations, which had recently extracted some small concessions.
"From the New Zealand point of view we are seeing the real need now for the UN's engagement to be backed by the neighbours. The neighbours are Asean, China and India," she told NZPA.
"We think that's where leadership really needs to be shown."
Miss Clark said a statement on climate change was also expected to come out of the summit.
It was likely to include broad goals rather than specific targets, but Miss Clark said getting India, which is not part of other regional groupings such as APEC, to sign up would be important.
"We've all got a role to play and India being part of this statement would be significant."
Summit leaders will also get a progress report on the Japanese-funded Closer Economic Partnership study, which looks at the potential benefits of a region-wide free trade bloc.
Japan has suggested trying to achieve such an agreement by 2015 - the date when ASEAN expects to have completed bilateral free trade agreements with all of the summit countries.
- NZPA
