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Opinion | Why Xi Jinping must meet Joe Biden in person in Bali and Bangkok
- The G20 and Apec meetings have long been important for multilateral governance and US-China relations
- While Xi has stated his support for the upcoming G20 Bali summit, it isn’t known if he will attend in person. Doing so would go a long way to improving bilateral ties
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Will China’s President Xi Jinping meet his US counterpart Joe Biden during the forthcoming G20 and Apec summits? The 17th G20 summit will take place on November 15-16 in Bali, Indonesia. Soon afterwards, Thailand, a fellow member of Asean, will host the Apec leaders’ meeting in Bangkok on November 18-19.
Leaders of the Group of 20 nations, including China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the United States, are expected to head for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bangkok from Bali.
In February, the Biden administration announced that the US would host the Apec meeting next year. It clearly hopes to promote its Indo-Pacific agenda, which lately includes leading the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
Meanwhile, China has criticised the US and others for seeking to replace inclusive Asia-Pacific cooperation with exclusive Indo-Pacific groupings.
G20 and Apec are the remaining concerts of powers established in the post-Cold-War era in the trans-Pacific region. Both China and the US are part of G20 and Apec, which has worked well not only for regional economic integration but also for US-China relations.
Globally, since 2008, G20 summits have helped, relatively, in mitigating financial crises and other challenges. The meetings have also served as a bridge between Chinese and American leaders. Chinese president Hu Jintao met his US counterparts George W. Bush and Barack Obama at G20 summits. Xi met Obama at the G20 St Petersburg summit in 2013. In 2016, Obama was in Hangzhou for the G20 summit.
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