2023-11-16 03:35:13
US President Joe Biden will discuss economic cooperation in the region with representatives of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in San Francisco on Thursday. 21 countries around the Pacific work together in the APEC group. In addition to the USA, these also include China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.
In the past few days, representatives of the APEC countries had already met at ministerial level, and heads of state and government are now also meeting at the end.
The meeting will be overshadowed by a bilateral meeting between Biden and China’s head of state Xi Jinping on the sidelines. The presidents met for the first time in a year on Wednesday evening European time to stabilize strained relations between the world’s two largest economies. Xi was also scheduled to attend the APEC summit.
Russia, in turn, is represented in San Francisco by Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overtschuk. Many representatives of the Russian leadership are subject to sanctions because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Their travels to the West are therefore considered sensitive. Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin had already stayed away from the APEC meetings in recent years.
The APEC group has set itself the goal of strengthening the economic growth of member states in the Asia-Pacific region by reducing trade barriers. Around 40 percent of the world’s population lives in the APEC countries. The bloc together generates around 60 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).
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