Biden heads to Peru for APEC and final Xi meeting

Alex Willemyns2024.11.14

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday departed Washington for Lima, Peru, where he is expected to have his third and final in-person meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

The pair are slated to meet on Saturday, according to a senior White House official, who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity. It will be a year and a day since their summit in San Francisco – also on the sidelines of APEC – put a cap on 18 months of frosty ties.

During that meeting, Biden and Xi agreed to reinstate direct military talks as part of a broader reset in relations between the two countries, even as both sides acknowledged vast areas of disagreement.

The meeting this time round will have a far lower profile, the White House official said, with the leaders reflecting on progress in bilateral ties since last year but otherwise having no set “deliverables.”

“President Biden will want to take stock of the progress we have made,” the official said, noting that they “expect” it would be Biden and Xi’s “last meeting as presidents,” with Donald Trump set to be sworn-in as U.S. president for the second time in a little over two months.

The White House official declined to comment in detail on Biden’s planned message to Xi about the incoming Trump administration, which looks set to be dominated by a cadre of China “hawks.”

“I’m going to stick with the line: I can’t comment on what the next administration will or won’t do and what their policy direction will be,” they said. “Whatever the next administration decides, they are going to need to find ways to manage a tough, complicated relationship.”

Biden would reflect with Xi on “what we see has worked” in U.S.-China ties, the official added, as well as where strong differences remain.

“Russia, cross-[Taiwan] Strait issues, South China Sea, and cyber are areas the next administration is going to need to think about carefully, because those are areas of deep policy difference with China, and I don’t expect that will disappear,” the White House official said.

As president, Biden previously met with Xi on the sidelines of the November 2022 Group of 20 nations summit in Bali, Indonesia, and on the sidelines of last November’s APEC summit in San Francisco.

Edited by Malcolm Foster