– Pomp and colour –
APEC accounts for more than 50 percent of global gross domestic product, nearly half of world trade and 40 percent of the Earth’s population.
Set up 25 years ago, it has long pushed free trade among its members, who have separately pursued bilateral and multilateral deals with other economies both inside and outside the organisation.
APEC summits, which are consensus-based and have sometimes been criticised as talking shops, combine group meetings with a chance for leaders to meet on the sidelines in one-to-one bilateral sessions to discuss issues that affect their direct relations.
At Monday’s formal dinner that kicked off the summit, the hosts put on a spectacular, highly choreographed welcome for APEC leaders who arrived decked out in sleek, high-collared tunics as hundreds of dancers in the costumes of China’s dozens of ethnic minorities cheered wildly.
Xi unmistakably underscored China’s intention to enhance its world influence by laying out his vision of a Chinese-driven “Asia-Pacific dream” in a speech on Sunday to APEC business leaders.
Meanwhile Obama, speaking to the same audience on Monday, stressed US global leadership, calling his country a “thoroughly Pacific nation”.
Obama was to hold talks later Tuesday with Xi.
Talks between Obama and Putin – who are at odds over the latter’s machinations in Ukraine – were not known to be scheduled in Beijing.
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