Barack Obama’s three-day trip to the Philippines starts as the U.S. president arrives in Manila on Tuesday to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summits.

While the international summits were supposed to focus on trade and security relations between the Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world, the recent terror attacks in France are likely to hold the lion’s share of attention at the conference to be held on Nov. 18-19. The same happened at the G20 summit in Turkey as Syria’s civil war became the primary topic of discussion.

Obama will move to Malaysia to attend the ASEAN and East Asia summits after the APEC summits.

During his Manila visit, the U.S. president is scheduled to hold meetings with Philippine President Benigno Aquino as well as other allies. The meeting between Obama and Benigno should be significant as the Philippines is one of the oldest allies of the United States in the Asia-Pacific.

Obama will also meet the heads of state of the Trans-Pacific Partnership group and the members of the Pacific Alliance, Reuters reports.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the focus of the APEC summits should be the economic growth and trade development in the Asia-Pacific.

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, like the U.S. president, also arrived in Manila from Turkey after attending the G20 summit. He is scheduled to meet Obama late Tuesday while he is likely to meet Russia President Vladimir Putin as well.

According to South Korean President Park Geun-hye, the slowdown in the Asia-Pacific economy due to the aftermath of a global financial crisis is a “great concern.”

“In particular, trade growth has been falling short of the GDP growth of the region since 2012 - for the first time after the inception of APEC,” she said. “Given that trade has so far played a key role in putting our region on the rapid growth path, such a declining trend of trade is a matter of great concern.”

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