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David Dodwell

Most readers of foreign news pages this weekend will be assuming that US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing has been dominating everyone’s attention. But across Asia, Trump, with his massive business entourage, was not the only act in town this week.
At least two other major sets of meetings should not be overlooked. First, in New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hosting foreign ministers from the 10 Brics economies and a growing community of partners from the Global South.
And second, Shanghai saw a massive convergence of top officials from across the 21-member Apec grouping. Many will be travelling on from the more than 40 meetings in Shanghai to nearby Suzhou for the trade ministers’ meeting after.
Each set of meetings has its own distinctive narratives on the turbulent state of global affairs – it may sound surprising, but some may not see the Xi-Trump summit as the most important.
Diplomats around Trump and Xi have been at pains to deflate the expectations surrounding the summit. For the United States, the Iran war has been a massive and awkward distraction, which means preparations for the summit, which would normally be punctilious, have been cut very short.
Trump’s emphatically unilateral approach to political and economic diplomacy is clearly a priority at the heart of his “America first” agenda, and may make bilateral summits his negotiating template of choice. But this sits very uncomfortably with a Beijing hard-pressed to convince other trading partners it is a true champion of multilateral cooperation.


Best for Xi, then, that this Beijing summit would stay quick and simple: a few modest headline deals that give Trump the necessary face; no commitments that compromise China’s multilateralist credentials; and a fudge on tough issues like the Iran war, Taiwan and the setting of global tariffs and standards.
The task of keeping it simple is made easier because Xi and Trump have three more summit opportunities before the end of the year. Two of these are comfortably multilateral in nature: in November at the Apec leaders’ forum in Shenzhen, and in December at the G20 meeting in Miami.
The coincidental clash of Trump’s summit with the Brics meeting was helpful for Beijing in many ways.
For one thing, it allowed Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to stay away from what is likely to have been one of the toughest Brics meetings ever. Despite the importance of the foreign ministers’ meeting in preparing for September’s Brics summit, also in New Delhi, a glimpse at the bloc’s membership reveals a tangled briar patch of conflicted interests – with Iran at the heart of it, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates across the table.
Brics chair India juggles impossibly between appeasing Iran (as many as 13 Indian ships remain blocked in the Persian Gulf) and Russia (India also depends heavily on its oil and gas) while keeping bridges open to its allies, the US and Israel.

At the same time, it is arm-wrestling China for recognition as de facto champion of the Global South while fellow developing economies restively press for greater global influence in a rebalancing world.
Consider the stresses of championing the needs of the Global South while staying on the right side of the rich West: India stands with China and other Brics founders in trying to finalise a cross-border bank settlement system that would allow Brics economies to trade with each other using their own currencies.
Yet Trump has condemned what he deems a threat to the US dollar and Washington’s capacity to impose sanctions. This has tested Brics members’ mettle, slowing the momentum towards a bigger Brics role in international standards-setting and cooperation.
So far, China has done most of the heavy-lifting in the contest to shape standards, and the single payment platform was an important opportunity for India to show progress in its chairmanship year. The distraction and divisions arising from the Iran conflict have been deeply unhelpful.
As for the Apec officials’ meetings in Shanghai – covering issues from regional economic cooperation, including in the digital and green sectors, cars and investment facilitation, to the multilateral trading system and cooperation on standards – the challenge to Trump’s “America first” agenda, and thus to the agenda for Trump’s Beijing trip, could hardly be more direct.


The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation as an institution remains fundamentally at odds with Trump’s unilateral approach to setting international trade and investment rules and standards. As Eduardo Pedrosa, executive director of the Apec Secretariat, insisted: “There is growing recognition of the importance of cooperation that is practical, forward-looking and focused on shared economic priorities.”
The Apec trade ministers’ meeting in Suzhou, in the wake of the cluster of meetings in Shanghai, has as its highest priority regional trade and economic cooperation – light years from the “America first” agenda driven by Trump’s negotiating team. The Apec ministers are firmly in support of reform and the re-empowerment of the World Trade Organization – hardly a priority for Trump.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has remained at Trump’s elbow in Beijing, leaving Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer to fill America’s Apec seat in Suzhou. Also unsurprisingly, there will be many in Suzhou scrutinising carefully how faithfully Xi resists US pressure in defence of multilateral trade cooperation. China’s credibility in support of multilateral cooperation, and as a bulwark against unilateral bullying, rests on it.


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Diplomacy

Xi-Trump summit aside, 2 meetings in Asia matter for global trade

US tech bosses and officials attend a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14 as US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping arrive. Photo: AP

India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar shakes hands with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi at the Brics foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on May 14. Photo: Reuters

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China remains heavily dependent on Middle Eastern crude imports, with any prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz posing risks to its energy security and broader economy. Photo: Getty Images

Trump-Xi summit puts US vulnerabilities on display

Children greet Chinese President Xi Jinping (second right) and US President Donald Trump during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14. Photo: Reuters

A currency trader poses for a photo in front of a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on May 12. Photo: AP

Why the world needs China to save more, not less

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The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam during the official inauguration ceremony in Guba, Ethiopia on September 9, 2025. China did not directly fund the largest hydroelectric project in Africa, but provided loans for related infrastructure. Photo: AFP

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As Trump travelled to Beijing for the kind of bilateral dealmaking he prefers, two groups have continued their multilateral efforts


As Trump travelled to Beijing for the kind of bilateral dealmaking he prefers, two groups have continued their multilateral efforts.


United States

Brics

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec)

Xi Jinping

Donald Trump

US-China relations

2026 Xi-Trump summits

US-Israel war on Iran

Global South

Inside Out & Outside In

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Wang Yi

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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Outside In

Xi-Trump summit aside, 2 meetings in Asia matter for global trade

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}As Trump travelled to Beijing for the kind of bilateral dealmaking he prefers, two groups have continued their multilateral efforts

As Trump travelled to Beijing for the kind of bilateral dealmaking he prefers, two groups have continued their multilateral efforts