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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump plans to represent the United States at a virtual Asia-Pacific summit this week in which his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, also plans to participate, a US official told Reuters.
Trump’s participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum hosted virtually by Malaysia on Friday will be his first at the event since 2017, the only time he has participated.
The news comes after the outgoing Trump administration faced criticism for lower-level participation in last weekend’s virtual East Asia Summit, on the sidelines of which 15 countries signed a major China-backed regional trade agreement.
“POTUS is doing APEC,” said a US official, who did not want to be named, using the acronym for the US president.
The White House declined to comment, and while the current plan is for Trump to participate in APEC, the Republican president is preoccupied with an uphill battle to contest his defeat in the November 3 presidential election. In the past, you have changed your mind about participating in these types of meetings.
China’s Xi is scheduled to be among the participants in the APEC leaders meeting on Friday and will also address a conference of CEOs starting Thursday.
Last year’s APEC summit, which Trump was supposed to attend, did not take place because Chile withdrew from the organization amid violent street protests.
Vice President Mike Pence represented the United States at APEC in 2018 amid intense tensions between the United States and China, which have since deteriorated to their worst in decades.
Trump failed in his reelection bid after a campaign that highlighted rivalry with China, though he has refused to admit defeat. Democratic rival Joe Biden will take office on January 20.
APEC takes place practically this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has hit the United States hardest and for which Trump has blamed China.
The US official in charge of APEC said last week that the United States had yet to decide who would attend the leaders’ meeting, suggesting that Xi would be the center of attention at a time of growing Chinese influence in Asia.
A joint APEC ministerial statement on Monday outlined the need for free, fair and non-discriminatory trade practices to drive economic recovery from the pandemic and structural reforms to promote sustainable and inclusive growth.
Many analysts viewed Trump’s absence from the East Asia Summit as a slight even though even his administration had declared Asia-Pacific and competition with China a foreign policy priority.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Monday it was concerned the United States would fall behind after the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Partnership Agreement (RCEP) formed the world’s largest free trade bloc, cementing the dominant role of China in regional trade.
The United States is absent from both the RCEP and the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, from which Trump withdrew after taking office in 2017.
