Talking about the U.S.role in Asia, Gates told the conference Washington's commitment to its allies was as strong as ever, but that greater multilateral cooperation was needed to deal with both old and new challenges to security.
VOA: standard.2009.05.30
What, then, remains of East Asia's longstanding commitment to multilateral trade negotiations, embodied in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its forebears?
The opposition to new trade talks heard from Geneva diplomats reflects, I believe, frustration that the United States, Europe, and Japan have not been able to agree on an agenda for those talks that would strengthen their own commitment to a rules-based multilateral system.
"The UK has already cancelled all debts owed to it by Haiti and I strongly welcome today's G7 commitment to forgive Haiti's remaining multilateral debt, " he added.