A copy of the latest draft obtained by Kyodo News showed that the leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will not touch on territorial disputes in the South China Sea or elsewhere in their post-summit document.
They are expected to even avoid saying in general terms that ensuring the freedom of navigation is vital for the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of the world's economic growth.
The two-day annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila that will run through Thursday is taking place as China's massive land reclamation and island-building in the South China Sea have come under the international spotlight.
On Wednesday, Obama, after holding talks with his Philippine counterpart Benigno Aquino, told reporters they agreed on "the need for bold steps to lower tensions including pledging to halt further reclamation, new construction and militarization of disputed areas in the South China Sea."
The Philippines, the host of this year's APEC events, has in recent months been the most vocal opponent of China's increasing assertiveness among the rival claimants to the sea, which hosts important shipping lanes for the region that is seen as a major engine of the global economy for many more years to come.
But China, the world's second-largest economy, has apparently succeeded in Manila in what it wanted to avert the most: its ongoing construction activities in the contested waters stealing the limelight at the multilateral meeting.
Last week, to make sure that Xi would not lose his face in front of other leaders, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Manila and asked senior Philippine officials to ensure that "contentious issues" will not be raised during the summit.
There are also no plans for Xi to hold one-on-one talks with either Obama or Abe on the sidelines of the APEC leaders' meeting, diplomats said, reflecting Beijing's unwillingness to be criticized over the maritime disputes, in particular in the Philippines.
However, before the APEC banquet for the leaders started, Xi seemed to have waited for Obama to enter a cocktail lounge and both greeted each other with a handshake and a smile.
Live TV footage of the party showed that the Chinese and U.S. presidents' conversation lasted several minutes, although what they discussed was not immediately known.
In a speech at a business conference on Wednesday, Xi did not mention anything about territorial disputes, nor did he repeat China's stance on the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety.
China has insisted that its construction activities in the Spratly archipelago are civilian in nature.
Not only the Philippines, which has garrisoned nine features of the archipelago, but also many others in the Asia-Pacific region, including four other claimants -- Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam -- do not accept China's explanation at face value.
The Chinese activities that started almost two years ago are widely seen as part of a long-term strategy of challenging U.S. military primacy in the Western Pacific.
In the name of guaranteeing the freedom of navigation in and overflight above the disputed waters, the United States last month sent a guided missile destroyer within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit claimed by China at Subi Reef, one of Beijing's seven man-made features in the Spratlys.
China has criticized the United States for "illegally" entering its territorial waters near the reef, where satellite images have shown it is building a runway long enough to accommodate military aircraft.
Takuya Karube
==Kyodo
18/11/15
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