Apec Summit: Biden and Xi “will talk about peace and development”, says Beijing

Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will discuss "world peace and development," Monday Beijing, at the occasion of a major summit which is being held this week at San Francisco, where many allies of the United States will be received.

The two leaders will hold their first meeting in almost a year on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in San Francisco which is hosting from Saturday until next Friday the 20 other members of Apec.

“The two heads of state will have an in-depth dialogue on strategic, general and directional issues concerning China-US relations, as well as key issues concerning world peace and development,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Monday.

She also urged the United States, during a regular press briefing, to “sincerely respect China's reasonable concerns and legitimate development rights, rather than solely focusing on their own concerns while harming China's interests.

Biden and Xi will discuss bilateral, regional and global issues as well as ways to “manage competition responsibly,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre previously said.

< img class="aligncenter" src="/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/896daab1177a0c07709e882e7014de16.jpg" alt="Apec Summit: Biden and Xi 'will talk about peace and development,' says Pé ;kin" />

American President Joe Biden (d) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit on November 14, 2023 in Bali © AFP – SAUL LOEB

According to a senior American official, the Wednesday's meeting aims to “stabilize” the deeply frozen relations between the two countries.

It should address a wide range of disagreements, notably over Taiwan, where elections in two months could trigger new tensions with Beijing, which claims this autonomous democracy and has not ruled out seizing it by force. /p>

– Allies –

The Xi-Biden summit follows a series of meetings in recent months between high-level officials from the two countries but this will be the first meeting of the two leaders State since November 2022 in Bali.

Apec was created thirty years ago, when American policymakers believed that strong trade would bring countries along the Pacific Ocean closer together.

Trade between China and the United States © AFP – Janis LATVELS

This optimistic vision has had its day. Joe Biden's administration offers only a limited economic pact to Apec and has spent recent months strengthening sanctions against China, seen as the main obstacle to US supremacy on the world stage.

But both countries are calling for greater stability in their economic and political relations. And since a visit to Washington is politically unfeasible, Apec offers Mr. Xi a unique chance to see his counterpart on American soil.

If the United States deploys significant diplomatic resources to reconnect with China, on the other hand, they seek to isolate Russia, a member of Apec, because of its invasion of Ukraine.

Washington has made it clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, is not welcome.

Moscow will be represented by vice -Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk. He will be the highest-ranking Russian visitor to the United States since the start of the war.

In terms of diplomacy, Mr. Biden, unlike his predecessor and rival Donald Trump, focused on highlighting alliances, particularly through new formats such as the tripartite military pact with Australia and the United Kingdom.

– Negotiations –

Among the United States' allies present at Apec are Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who visited both Washington and Beijing last month, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Before flying to San Francisco, Mr. Biden will welcome outgoing Indonesian President Joko Widodo to the White House. The United States covets the archipelago's vast nickel reserves, essential for electric car batteries, but China dominates production there.

The summit is nevertheless unlikely to offer a respite on the diplomatic issue that has monopolized Mr. Biden's attention for the past month: the war between Israel and Hamas.

Apec members include not only Indonesia, the largest country majority of the world's Muslims, but also neighboring Malaysia. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is traveling to San Francisco despite calls for a boycott by the opposition in his country over US support for Israel.

Free trade agreements are no longer popular in Washington, Donald Trump having withdrawn the United States from the nascent Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), proposed by his predecessor Barack Obama.

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