Following a summit dominated by a call-out agreement between the leaders of the United States and China to end their trade war, the leaders of the Asian and Pacific Rim have pledged their support for trade and investment that “benefits all.”
Following a high-stakes summit held on the sidelines of the event, US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, earlier agreed to lower the temperature in the heated US-China conflict.
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Trump left South Korea on Thursday following their first face-to-face meeting since 2019, putting the Chinese leader in the spotlight during the two-day economic forum.
At the event’s opening on Friday, Xi, who has portrayed China as a proponent of multilateralism and free trade, said that nations needed to collaborate because the world is becoming more “complex and volatile.”
The APEC leaders stated in their statement that “robust” trade and investment were essential for the growth of the region and that they were committed to “deepening economic cooperation to navigate the evolving global environment.”
According to the declaration, APEC, which has 21 members, includes the US, China, Japan, South Korea, and China, will promote “market-driven” economic integration and promote “experience sharing, capacity building, and business engagement.”
Additionally, the leaders pledged regional cooperation in the areas of declining birth rates and artificial intelligence.
The summit’s host, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, warned that economies were navigating a time of growing global uncertainty before the declaration.
According to Lee, “the free trade system is experiencing significant turbulence, global economic uncertainty is deepening, and trade and investment momentum is waning.”
“Freaked exercise”
In a sign of the fraying consensus on free trade amid rising populism around the world, Saturday’s statement made no direct reference to multilateralism or the World Trade Organization.
It was “probably a miracle” that the leaders could come to a consensus on a joint statement, according to Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore.
Any agreed language that could be included in a document was a difficult task, Elms said, citing the strong positions of some APEC economies.
These are typically prepared well in advance. As officials changed wording to find a workable compromise, this one hung in the balance until the very last second.
After arranging earlier meetings with Xi’s counterparts in Japan, Canada, and Thailand, Xi and Lee met for discussions slated to include trade and North Korea’s nuclear program.
Since Xi’s election in a snap election in June, the two leaders have met for the first time since Xi last visited South Korea in 2014.
Lee has pledged to pursue a more unbiased approach to China than Yoon Suk Yeol, his conservative predecessor, who was impeached for briefly enjoining martial law last year.
South Korea has had to draw a fine line between China, South Korea’s largest trading partner and the US, its security guarantor.
The US maintains about 28,500 troops in South Korea, which is bound by international law to defend it in the event of an attack. This is a testament to Washington’s support for the nation during its 1950-1953 conflict with North Korea.
In 2024, South Korea exported nearly one-fifth of its goods to China, with shipments totaling $133 billion.
With shipments worth $ 127.8 billion, the US was the second-largest export destination.
In recent years, South Korea’s relationship with China has been tampered with by a number of disputes, most notably one involving the US’s 2017 deployment of a THAAD missile defense system.
According to Rob York, director for regional affairs at the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum, Lee wants to see South Korea’s most significant relationships “main stable.” This means lowering tensions with China, preventing a drastic decline in US relations, and leveraging the diplomatic heavy lifting his predecessor did with Japan.
According to York, “for the time being, striking a friendly note with both Chairman Xi and President Trump will mean he will do so even as he steps in secret to lessen US reliance on the US to protect maritime security and to stop PRC hybrid war operations in South Korea related to maritime issues and technology theft,” according to York, who spoke in Mandarin Chinese.
Source: Aljazeera
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