Biden strengthens ties with Asian APEC allies and receives Xi in San Francisco

The president of USA Joe Biden He will receive his Pacific allies in San Francisco this week and will have a face-to-face meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in an effort to contain the growing influence of Beijing.

Biden arrives on Tuesday to lead the summit of the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) in San Francisco, a city that is trying to recover its image as a scene of technological innovation and shake off the negative epithets gained in recent years by the increase in crime and homeless population.

Biden must focus on progress on a new trade pact for Asia, less ambitious than previous efforts but which has already received opposition in his own Democratic party.

The United States conceived APEC three decades ago with the idea of ​​uniting Pacific economies through trade.

This view is a thing of the past when it comes to China, with the Biden administration in recent months intensifying sanctions against Beijing, seen as the main challenge to US global primacy.

Both nations, however, say they are hopeful of achieving greater stability and, with the 2024 United States presidential elections on the horizon and the unlikelihood of a visit to Washington, the APEC summit comes as a unique opportunity for Xi to meet with Biden on American soil.

Both leaders are expected to meet this Wednesday (the first time since November last year at the G20 summit in Bali) to discuss some hot topics, such as Taiwan, which in two months will hold elections in which Washington fears interference from Beijing. , which claims the sovereignty, even with the use of force, of this self-governed democratic island.

A US official expressed hope that Xi and Biden can “open new avenues of communication” amid Washington’s expectations of reestablishing contact between both armies, considered especially vital to manage a crisis in Taiwan.

– Latin American tensions –

For other leaders present in San Francisco, APEC runs the risk of “feel like a side dish” apart from Biden and Xi, but they are also likely to be relieved by this meeting, said Jude Blanchette, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Even countries in the region that are extraordinarily concerned about China’s growing aggressiveness continue to have deep economic interrelations with China and, at the margin, would vastly prefer a stable US-China relationship to an unstable one,” said.

On the Latin American side, after comings and goings about his participation due in part to the diplomatic confrontation he maintains with the Peruvian government, the Mexican Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed his presence and is expected on Thursday in San Francisco.

López Obrador has refused to recognize Dina Boluarte, successor to the imprisoned Pedro Castillo, as president of Peru, who was arrested last December after announcing that he would dissolve Parliament and govern by decree just as he was about to face an impeachment trial.

Despite the tensions, Boluarte must arrive in San Francisco on Tuesday to fulfill a busy agenda that includes a speech at the CEO summit that takes place parallel to the forum.

Boluarte, like the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, who will also appear at the meeting, have just participated in the Alliance for Economic Prosperity in the Americas (APEP), organized by Washington two weeks ago in an attempt to strengthen trade alliances. in the region.

In a surprising addition, Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, a country that has sought to be integrated into the Forum for more than two decades, will arrive as an observer.

– Emphasis on alliances –

APEC, which talks about “economies” instead of “countries”, exceptionally includes China and Taiwan, which will be represented by businessman Morris Chang. Who is not expected at the meeting is the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Moscow will be represented by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk, the highest-ranking Russian to set foot in the United States since the invasion of Ukraine. In contrast to his predecessor and rival, Donald Trump, Biden has emphasized the power of US alliances.

Among its allies in APEC are the Australian Prime Minister, Antony Albanese; the Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, and the South Korean President, Yoon Suk Yoel.

San Francisco was chosen for its historic ties to Asia and its central role in global technology, but it is unlikely that APEC will be able to set aside the war between Israel and Hamas.

APEC members include not only Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, but also neighboring Malaysia, where Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim heads to San Francisco defying opposition calls for a boycott over the US support for Israel.

Source: AFP