Reuters quoted him as saying the government had not cancelled the meeting of the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

However, virtual meetings of other officials would be held, and “the cabinet has also agreed not to rule out a format that would involve physical meeting arrangements for the Apec economic leaders”, Azmin said at an online news conference after talks with fellow Apec ministers.

New Zealand, which is the host of next year’s Apec summit, has said already that it will use virtual platforms to conduct the meeting due to travel restrictions and uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.

Azmin said Apec’s Post-2020 Vision plan would be launched in December as scheduled despite the changes in meetings format this year, according to Bernama.

It said senior officials would have four more meetings before presenting the plan to ministers “which will be further escalated to be launched by the leaders in December”.