This week, South Korea plays host to a significant summit, drawing leaders from Pacific nations and territories, including China’s Xi Jinping. However, the event is notable for the absence of one key figure: former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Among the discussions, a key topic was the resumption of Japanese beef and seafood imports to China, as highlighted by one of the attending leaders.
The interactions at the summit have been a mix of diplomacy and camaraderie. Notably, a warm rapport was evident between Trump and one of the attendees, characterized by shared smiles, fist pumps, and light-hearted exchanges.
For Canada’s Prime Minister, the summit served as a pivotal moment. Amid an ongoing trade dispute with Trump, his meeting with Xi was described by his office as a “turning point” in the bilateral relationship.
In a speech that resonated with the sentiments expressed by Xi and other leaders, the Canadian Prime Minister addressed the forum, emphasizing that the world is at “another hinge moment in history.” His words underscored the gravity of the challenges facing the global community today.
In an earlier speech that echoed Xi and Lee’s addresses to APEC, Carney told the forum that the world was “facing another hinge moment in history.”
“Our world is undergoing one of the most profound shifts since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” he said.
“That old world… of steady expansion of liberalized trade and investment… that world is gone.”
Carney and Xi “affirmed their commitment to renewing the relationship between their two countries in a pragmatic and constructive way” and discussed a framework “to deepen cooperation across a range of areas – from clean and conventional energy, to agriculture, manufacturing, climate change, and international finance,” the prime minister’s office said.
Carney also accepted an invitation to visit China and both leaders “directed their officials to move quickly to resolve outstanding trade issues and irritants.”
Xi will sit down for talks with South Korea’s Lee on Saturday, in the first summit meeting between the two leaders.
On the agenda are discussions on the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and regional peace and stability.
Ahead of that meeting, North Korea called talks about denuclearization a “pipedream” that will never be realised.
The country’s Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho accused South Korea of lacking “common sense” for refusing to acknowledge Pyongyang as a nuclear-armed state, and pursuing what he called a “daydream” of denuclearization, the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported.
