Amid reports that India asked the Philippines to support its candidature for joining APEC, the US today said at present there is no discussion on "any new membership" to the powerful forum of 21 Pacific Rim countries.
In an interaction with foreign journalists here, Deputy US Assistant Secretary of State and Senior Official for APEC Matt Matthews said currently there is "no discussion" within the grouping on new membership.
Decisions within Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are taken with consensus, he noted.
"I do not believe there is any active consideration within APEC for expanded membership in the current time," Matthews told reporters in response to a question on India's membership in APEC.
"From time to time, economies register their interest and at present though there has been no significant discussion along those lines," he said.
The remarks by the senior US official comes weeks after India reportedly requested Philippines to support its candidature for membership to this powerful forum of 21 Pacific Rim countries which promotes trade throughout the Asia Pacific Region.
Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised the issue of India joining APEC when he met US President Barack Obama when the latter travelled to New Delhi in January this year. Obama had "welcomed" India's interest in joining APEC as a member.
"I would suggest that for any economy that is interested in APEC, a great way to start is to go into identifying some form of working groups that work on particular areas...They are particularly interested in that and apply as a guest to send experts to participate, to both help understand how APEC works and get a better understanding of how process turnout works," the US official said.
When asked about Obama's statement in New Delhi early this year, Matthews asserted that the US President had "welcomed" India's interest in joining APEC.
"It is important to be careful and accurate about describing President's comment. President welcomed India's interest in APEC. That speaks for itself. We welcome India's examination of APEC. We have not entered discussion about it. I do not believe India is formally pressing for actual membership now in APEC," the US official said.
