Prime Minister Tony Abbott flies to Bali on Sunday to participate in the annual Asia Pacific Economic Forum which begins on Monday.
The meeting will focus on a list of key issues, including trade and regional security and regional economic integration.
The 21 Pacific rim economies are expected show their commitment to the Bogor Goals of free, open trade and investment.
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APEC is emerging as a major economic bloc with Asia expected not only to become the world's largest producer of goods and services but also the largest consumer of them.
Set up in 1989, APEC consists of 21 member countries.
These are Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Taiwan, the United States, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The annual economic forum comes as negotiations continue on the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact.
The new regional trade deal would involve the ten members of the Association of South East Asian Nations plus Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea and India.
The agreement would bring together existing ASEAN free-trade agreements, including the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement, which is being seen as a benchmark for the broader deal.
The United States Senior official to APEC, Robert Wang, says he hopes this year's meeting could see an agreement on the partnership
"The initial reaction of China to TPP was not very positive. That's some time back. But I think over the last - I'd say the last several months, last half a year, we've seen really a more sort of positive attitude in terms of China being willing to consider and discuss TPP and how it somehow compares to RCEP. And our point of view, of course, has always been that at some point, all these processes have to be transparent."
The meeting is also likely to see the emergence of new economic players within the group.
The Philippines, which had the fastest-growing economy among Asian countries for the first quarter of 2013, is confident it has a real role to play in regional trade.
Secretary of Socioeconomic Planning of the Philippines, Arsenio Balisacan, says the Philippines has bucked a regional trend of slowing growth amid recession in Europe and a slow recovery in the United States.
"Going to meeting like APEC should advance our interest to be a major player in the emerging regional economy. We have started and we have shown to the world that we are capable of growing fast . In the past we were known as a 'basket case' country, incapable of growing fast, incapable of putting its house in order. We are demonstrating to the world now and we could take advantage of this new image in the Philippines."
Under President Obama, the US has rebalanced its global focus, moving away from Europe and the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific where China's dominance is growing rapidly.
Robert Wang says the meeting will also consider ways of broadening economic cooperation in a situation when the global economy remains unstable.
"But in terms of the Bogor goals, or moving towards greater trade and investment liberalisation, obviously, this year we will be trying very hard to continue to try to move this process forward, and trying to make sure that we are careful about protectionist tendencies, especially when the world economy, the global economy, tends to be a little bit fragile sometimes, a little volatile."
The summit also comes after two years of maritime tensions within the group over how to handle disputes with China over rival claims in the South China Sea.
China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the sea, including waters close to the coasts of its Asian neighbours.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also have sometimes overlapping claims to the sea.
Tensions escalated last year amid complaints by the Philippines and Vietnam that China was becoming increasingly aggressive in staking its claim to the sea.
But new Chinese President Xi Jinping, through an interpreter, says his country want to ensure peace and security in the region.
"Along with this we will promote strategic partnership between China and ASEAN to be more in depth, we always strive to maintain prosperity and stability in our region in Asia and south-east Asia, we will strive to promote unity and co-operation between developing countries, promote peace and development in the world."
Security on Bali has been dramatically increased ahead of the meeting.
More than 11,000 soldiers from the Indonesian military, the TNI, have been deployed to Bali to provide security for APEC attendees.
The Indonesian military has also deployed 15 warships and 16 jet fighters to patrol the air and sea around Nusa Dua, where the international delegates will gather.
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