Li's Singapore trip to boost talks on RCEP

A timely realization of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will help better address unilateralism and protectionism in order to establish a more open, inclusive and rules-based international trading system, a senior official said on Thursday.

The RCEP, currently under negotiation, brings together the 10 Southeast Asian countries of ASEAN, as well as China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Members will gather in Singapore next week on the sidelines of the 33rd ASEAN Summit with hopes to have the RCEP deal largely sewn up by the end of the year, according to Agence France-Presse.