Biden arrives at the APEC summit in Peru, expectations for his meeting with Xi Jinping

US President Joe Biden arrived in Peru on Thursday afternoon to participate in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, amid expectations for the meeting he will hold with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinpingwho arrived hours before.

Biden thus begins a six-day journey that will also take him to Brazil, where the meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 will be held.

The visit to the summit in Peru and his subsequent stops in the Amazon rainforest and at the Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Brazil offer Biden one of his last opportunities to meet with heads of state with whom he has worked for years. Those visits will be substantial, according to White House officials.

Among his agenda is his joint meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, where he will seek to consolidate the progress made since their initial meeting last year, said Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser. , on Air Force One.

Also, Biden may talk about sending North Korean soldiers to Russia to help in the war in Ukraine, Sullivan added. Additionally, the advisor indicated that White House officials have emphasized to Trump’s team that the relationship between the United States and China must be the “top priority for the incoming administration.”

Imminent meeting with Xi

US officials said Presidents Biden and Xi would meet on Saturday to discuss a range of issues, including rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.

It will be the first known interaction between the two in months and will occur after Donald Trump won the United States elections promising, among other issues, to adopt general tariffs of 60% on imports of Chinese products as part of a package of trade measures under the motto “America First.”

Biden and Xi last met face-to-face at a farm in California on the sidelines of last year’s APEC summit and later had a phone conversation in April.

While Joe Biden landed in Lima, the Chinese president was received with honors at the Government Palace by the Peruvian president Dina Boluarte.

Both leaders held a working meeting with several of their state ministers.

“The binational cooperation megaprojects in mining and infrastructure construction have been advancing steadily, bringing tangible benefits to both peoples,” Xi said in a statement released to journalists.

During his visit to Peru, Xi inaugurated the Chancay megaportlocated about 70 kilometers north of Lima and built by the Chinese state company Cosco Shipping.

(With information from Patsy Widakuswara from Air Force One and Celia Mendoza special envoy to Lima, Peru)

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