After two days of meetings in Lima that rarely ventured beyond platitudes in discussing the strategies of the region’s major economies, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum wrapped up on Saturday with a spirit of detente that many fear the annual summit may not see again for four years.
The 21 leaders from economies bordering the Pacific, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, descended on Peru this week at a time when America’s incoming president, Donald Trump, has vowed to withdraw the US from its leadership of a global free trade agenda.
Few could help noting that Mr Biden’s late entrance to the traditional Apec family photo on Saturday lent itself to political metaphor, as the rest of the leaders prepared to pose onstage before looking around to find Mr Biden missing.
They tittered for five awkward minutes before a seemingly dazed Mr Biden emerged and took his place in the far back corner, standing between Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Vietnam President Luong Cuong. Descending the stage, Mr Biden briefly reached for Ms Shinawatra’s hand to steady himself.
Chinese President Xi Jinping scored the best spot in the house, front and centre beside the host, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte.
He draped himself in the banner of globalisation this week, inaugurating a massive 1.3 billion dollar (£1.27 billion) megaport in Peru that promises to become South America’s biggest shipping hub and using his speeches to reject protectionism.
In Mr Xi’s summit address, delivered by one of his ministers, the Chinese leader urged Apec members to “tear down the walls impeding the flow of trade”, and criticised tariffs — which Mr Trump threatens to levy on Chinese imports — as “going back in history”.
For the annual photo-op, leaders all wore bark-hued wool scarves from Peru — in the Apec tradition of posing in some garb representative of the host country. While conference organisers typically position leaders in alphabetical order for the family photo, arrangements have varied over the years.
Reporters shouted questions as Mr Biden left the stage on Friday, asking how he felt about this being his last Apec summit — and one of his last major global events as president.
Mr Biden had hoped that Apec — along with the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, where he heads on Sunday — would have capped his decades-long political career with a flurry of productive diplomacy and swaggering proclamations of America’s force on the world stage.
But with his party’s stinging defeat in the US election and the future of the US-China rivalry uncertain, there was little he could accomplish in Lima.
He sought to cement alliances that could be upended by a Trump administration. He expressed concern to the leaders of South Korea and Japan about what he called “dangerous and destabilising cooperation” between North Korea and Russia.
Later on Saturday Mr Biden and Mr Xi sat down at a long table for their third and final meeting of Mr Biden’s tenure.
Mr Xi told Mr Biden that his nation was was “ready to work with a new administration to maintain communication”.
Mr Biden also struck a conciliatory tone, saying that such in-person talks helped “ensure that competition between our two countries will not veer into conflict”.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here