John Key with Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau in Peru. Photo / Supplied
"In 2008, I was sworn in, got on plane and left for Apec in Lima," recounts former National Prime Minister Sir John Key.
"My first bilateral ever was with PNG leader Sir Michael Somare in Chile, in Santiago on the way to Peru."
Key said the swift trip was a mark of the importance his Government put on Apec.
He took counsel from outgoing Labour prime minister Helen Clark. "One of the real strengths of Helen Clark is her knowledge base is deep. Going straight to Apec sent a strong message we would continue those linkages.
"When I walked into the room all the leaders were there," he recalls. "It's a funny experience to get to meet people you've only saw on TV.
"I saw familiar faces. At the end of the room George W. Bush was there.
"He came straight up and said, 'I know exactly who you are'."
They got to talking and jostling, in Bush's case, about having to do the photos with the ponchos. "We put them on. Both were wearing them. I hadn't realised how much media there was until I walked out with him. I couldn't hear what he was saying because of the sounds of camera shutters.
"It was deafening. Like a swarm of locusts. Unbelievable sound."
It's not surprising Key has a fund of interesting anecdotes about Apec. He attended seven meetings missing just Hawaii in 2011 because he was fighting an election. He says almost nothing is more important when comes to bilateral relationships than facetime. "Ultimately familiarity leads to results and Apec leads to results."
New Zealand's Security Council campaign is a case in point. "Without the opportunity to build relationships through Apec it would have been very difficult for New Zealand to win a seat on the council up against Spain and Turkey. "They have historical linkages that we don't with Europe and moderate Muslim nations.
"What do we have? Arguably, the Commonwealth. But that's not a fully functioning organisation and I'm not 100 per cent sure of its mission."
Key arrived in Lima at the time of the Global Financial Crisis to find Peruvian President Alan Garcia had declared that the GFC should not even be called a crisis — it was simply "growing pains" from the speed of global development.
As a former international banker Key knew that was rubbish. He broke with protocol and openly disputed Garcia's views, saying, "This isn't about growing pains. This is about actually trying to stabilise the economies of the world and actually get them moving again."
He later touched base with Bush, by now a former president, going to see him in Asia and being taken through his book Decision Points.
Bush wasn't the only US leader on his dance card. "I played golf with Obama. Apec led to that opportunity. We both met through Apec. But also of itself we spent lots of time together with other Apec leaders."
To him, Apec is a unique platform that allows New Zealand leaders equal time with those from 20 massive countries and economies.
It's also an opportunity to build relationships. He's never spent time with Russia's Vladimir Putin but he did get to know Dmitry Medvedev well and enjoy his company.
Key says another thing that's great is the leaders have their own business representatives. "Tony Nowell chaired Abac. Katherine Rich was on it. Tony did an outstanding job and mixed well. They have breakout groups where they put four countries together and four leaders with 12 representatives.
"Some I met there were fascinating — billionaires and massively successful people."
Apec was also where the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) was born.
"I remember when Obama rang me and said I am going to bring Canada in and Mexico and Japan. I said, 'the Canadian farmers won't let Stephen Harper do it. Japan would be a problem'. He said 'we know the challenges but we need this thing to be big and successful and get over the line'."
Obama later asked Key to chair a TPP meeting at the Bali Apec.
"Japan got to liberalise its economy. And to be fair to Harper (Canadian PM) he pushed it through."
Key believes in many respects it is a tragedy that Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal. "I think history proved Trump inconsistent. He just did deals. He was always consistently sceptical or negative on trade deals."
Key is enthusiastic that China wants to join TPP's successor, the CPTPP. "On a number of occasions President Xi asked about TPP and I encouraged him to join.
Key says some leaders go along to Apec and diligently read communiques or stick to a script, but discussions in the less formal environments are invaluable.
Helen Clark says Apec was a very good annual opportunity to "rub shoulders" with a wide range of leaders.
"I went in Brunei in 2000 and met Bill Clinton and Goh Chok Tong and talked the long game and a free trade agreement."
Clinton left politics although Clark says she used to see him in New York when the UN engaged him as the special envoy for Haiti.
But Clark says all the early legwork for what would later become the Pacific Three (P3) free trade agreement between Singapore, New Zealand and Chile was done on the margins on Apec.
The friendships she forged during her eight years as New Zealand prime minister stood her in good stead when she left politics to launch a new career as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.
Clark recalls Clinton as "always congenial" and considers former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to be a "good friend".
After leaving office in 2008, she received a handwritten note from then US President George W. Bush noting that he had enjoyed working with her. Clark found Bush "very good" to deal with. "Although things became difficult at Apec after the 2003 Iraq invasion."
At the 2001 Apec in Shanghai, China was preparing to join the World Trade Organisation. "When we met in Pudong there were no lights at night. It was clearly a great commercial centre in the making," she says "We were in a multi-story building looking over urban development. It was a nascent time.
The Pearl Tower was up. They had cleared the air space and skies. But it was like before the flood."
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Bush and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell travelled to Shanghai to impress the need to step up regional security.
"In the moment after 9/11, the US had the world with it," says Clark. "It was quite a harmonious Apec.
Things changed with the drumbeat for Iraq. In 2003, after the invasion things had soured. You could cut air with a knife. Apec was divided down the middle."
Worries about security continue to go right to the heart of the economic aims espoused by the Pacific leaders. After the Bali bombings senior ministers declared that "terrorism in all its forms is a threat to economic stability in Apec as well as a threat to regional peace and stability."
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Clark says language was always a huge issue with lots of the mingling done in green rooms conducted through interpreters.
"Over the years, Russian President Putin put a lot of work into his English," she recalls. "He'd speak through an interpreter in a structured situation but in the green room he'd talk without the need for interpreter to be present."
Sir John Key has confessed to being envious of Clark's "Rolodex".
Her political contacts from Apec are formidable.
She had great bilaterals with the Mexican presidents she met at Apec: Ernesto Zedillo, Vincente Fox, and Felipe Calderon.
She chalks up Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra and the Sultan of Brunei as strong connections. Ricardo Lagos who hosted the Chile Apec in 2004 and Michelle Bachelet, who succeeded him, as president are friends. The latter is also a colleague.
"You get to know people. There are a lot of bilaterals, the green room and lunch and dinner conversations."
"When we would arrive we would mingle before the start of meetings."
At the 2006 Apec, she had a "structured pull aside" with Bush. "There had been discussions at officials level. We had decided to try and work for a relationship between two democratic countries."
Beyond the networking in New Zealand's national interest, Clark was interested in policy.
She says actually being able to get a topic of relevance to the region on to the agenda, like climate change, was a highlight.
"Apec is always open to discussions — everything relates to the economy.
"It was able to be raised that way.
So too, discussions on HIV where she overcame objections by more sceptical leaders by pointing to the cost of not treating the disease.
Has Apec lived up to its promise? "Probably not. The main advantage is a network. New Zealand is round the table with large and powerful companies and can do good bilateral business.
"We had long hard negotiations on the Doha round and WTO ministerial to advance. It was very frustrating."
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