India and some 12 nations had put forward a demand to expand the 21-member APEC club during the APEC meeting in Sydney. However, the foreign and trade ministers of the Asia-Pacific member countries rejected the demand to discuss the matter of expansion on Wednesday.

According to Indian point of view, the country deserves to get a place in APEC, formed in 1989, because of its geographical location, trade and investment relations with other countries and the growing economy.

Indian participation in the APEC would strengthen the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. However, the APEC has now taken a decision that this is not the right time to talk about the expansion plan.

India had received the crucial support from Australia, the host of APEC summit 2007 but all the practices went in vain when the a Japanese official declared that the ministers have decided not to take any action for the expansion of the APEC.

Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba said:

I understand the chair concluded that the status quo should be maintained for the membership issue. All the ministers were told to come out with their views on accepting new members but no one raised hands for speaking on this matter.

The APEC member countries are such as Brunei, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The club already includes the likes of Australia, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The other countries that had asked APEC to expand the club were such as India, Colombia, Ecuador, Macau, Mongolia, Pakistan, Panama, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Read