Bush Secures Foreign Help on Economy, North Korea

U.S. President George W. Bush, left, with President Hu Jintao of China before their meeting at the APEC Summit in Lima, Peru Friday, Nov. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

(AP)

President George W. Bush snared fresh international support Saturday on the economy and North Korea, emerging from his final world gathering with modest wins and growing nostalgia about his turbulent tenure.

Dogged by a collapsing economy late in his presidency, Bush came away with the commitment he wanted from Asia's Pacific nations: a pledge to keep trade flowing and shun protectionism.

And Bush got a boost as the six nations involved in ridding North Korea of its nuclear weaponry agreed to meet in China in December, perhaps to finally lock in a disarmament deal.

All the while, Bush displayed a new willingness to look back on his term and speak wistfully about it, the kind of reflection he previously had dismissed as premature or pointless.

Barring a surprise trip to Iraq or Afghanistan, Bush's foreign travel as president is ending with this Pacific Rim economic summit in Peru.

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"We've had our agreements, we've had our disagreements," Bush said to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a rather succinct nod to a bilateral relationship that has certainly seen better days. "I've tried to work hard to make it a cordial relationship, though."

Bush now returns to Washington to the same sober realities: an economy in tatters, feuds with Congress, and only two months left to do anything.

The 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, rallied behind the economic crisis plan that Bush and other leaders forged last week in Washington. It already had the stamp of the world's richest economies and emerging powers, including some APEC nations, and now Bush can tout that other Pacific Rim nations are united in the cause.

Most notably, the APEC leaders offered a strong statement in support of free trade. That was Bush's primary appeal when he launched a defense of open markets earlier in the day.

Evoking one of his country's darkest times, Bush said: "One of the enduring lessons of the Great Depression is that global protectionism is a path to global economic ruin."