VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) ― Asia and Pacific leaders meeting in the Russian seaport of Vladivostok this weekend urgently need to push ahead with their agenda for freer trade. Faltering vital signs in China and elsewhere suggest the global recovery may depend on it.

The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum aims to foster growth by dismantling barriers and bottlenecks that slow trade and business, while nurturing closer economic ties.

But election-year politics and territorial spats are weakening the resolve of its 22 members to put aside differences for the sake of regional vitality.

Given its status as an organization governed by consensus, APEC is not known for major policy breakthroughs.

This year is particularly challenging: From the Kuril islands to the northeast of Vladivostok all the way to the Spratlys in the South China Sea, various neighbors are squabbling over territories at a time when they most need to be focused on promoting growth.

South Korea is feuding with Japan, Japan with China, China with many of its Southeast Asian neighbors. With elections due soon in South Korea and Japan, and a once-in-a-decade change in the Communist Party leadership pending in China, lame-duck leaders facing nationalist pressures at home have little room for amicably resolving the disputes.

“It’s bad luck that it happens just before all these transitions. Everybody is looking around and saying, ‘These people won’t be at the table in three months,’’’ said William Overholt, an Asia expert at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

“The omens are not auspicious,” he said.

As expected, on Thursday APEC finance ministers issued a declaration noting the crucial role the region plays in driving world growth and, as usual, their commitment to more open trade and investment.

The sharp decline in growth in trade this year ― from 12 percent in December from a year earlier to 4.6 percent in May ― underscores the importance of pushing ahead with trade initiatives, the APEC Policy Support Unit, an independent data analysis and research unit, said in a report issued Friday.

“APEC is really focused on trade and commercial facilitation, but this year these guys are mainly playing to the home crowds. These things are impacting what can possibly be done in Vladivostok,’’ said Tony Nash, managing director at IHS Global Insight in Singapore.