PORT MORESTBY, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- The 26th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting is scheduled to be held on Nov. 17-18 in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guina (PNG).

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the meeting, according to China's Foreign Ministry.

Established in 1989, APEC has become an important platform to facilitate economic cooperation among the currently 21 economies in the Asia-Pacific region.

China joined the group together with Hong Kong -- later called China's Hong Kong -- and Chinese Taipei in 1991 because APEC recognizes the "one-China" principle and respects the differences between sovereign states and regional economies.

China's membership has boosted its own development and greatly contributed to regional and world economic integration progress.

China has actively participated in the wide-ranging cooperation within the APEC framework. Chinese presidents have attended all APEC Economic Leaders' Meetings, and the positive, balanced and rational proposals they made at those meetings have won wide acclaim.

Among the APEC summits, China has successfully held two -- one in Shanghai in 2001 and the other in Beijing in 2014.

At the Beijing summit, which also marked the 25th anniversary of the organization, APEC leaders made a blueprint agreeing to enhance physical, institutional and people-to-people connections by 2025. The members also agreed to start a joint strategic study on the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), marking the official launch of the FTAAP process.

APEC members are important trading and economic partners as well as foreign direct investment sources of China. Both China and the rest of the region have benefited greatly from their cooperation.

During the past 27 years, China has played a constructive role in the APEC mechanism. In recent years, the Chinese government has actively enhanced cooperation with other members and the rest of the world to jointly tackle the challenges on the road to global economic recovery. Enditem