The countries said they were issuing their statement to give a better and fair reflection of the discussions on the Gaza situation during APEC.
The APEC leaders’ declaration reaffirmed their determination “to deliver a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, inclusive, and predictable trade and investment environment”.
“We are committed to necessary reform of the WTO to improve all of its functions, including conducting discussions with a view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all members by 2024,” it said.
Despite the frictions over the Ukraine and Middle East wars, the Sino-US talks will have brought some relief to APEC members concerned by a worsening trajectory in the rivalry between the superpowers, which are also the world’s largest economies.
The Biden-Xi summit brought agreements to resume military-to-military communications and work to curb fentanyl production, showing some tangible progress in the first face-to-face talks in a year between the two, but no major reset in their strategic rivalry.
Xi appeared to achieve his aims, earning US concessions in exchange for promises of cooperation, an easing of bilateral tensions that will allow more focus on economic growth, and a chance to woo foreign investors who increasingly shun China.
Biden, addressing the other APEC leaders on the last day of the conference, urged them to work together to ensure that artificial intelligence brings change for the better, rather than abusing workers or limiting potential.
Biden used the summit to highlight the strong US economy and its ties to other Pacific nations, even as his vision for greater regional cooperation to counter China’s influence stumbled on the trade front over his bid to strengthen workers’ rights.
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, said the Biden-Xi meeting was a badly needed signal the world needed to cooperate more and a positive sign for cooperation on global challenges, especially climate change.
Much US-China tension is linked to democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims at its own, and the issue has raised fears of a conflict between the superpowers.
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Taiwan’s APEC envoy, semiconductor magnate Morris Chang, told a news conference he believed the Biden-Xi summit had been a “good meeting”.
He said he had had informal interactions with Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of APEC, but not with Xi.
As it competes with China for influence, Biden’s administration has vowed to continue negotiating an ambitious Asia trade deal as part of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework it created as a forum for engagement after then-president Donald Trump quit a regional trade pact in 2017.
However, election-year pressures and resistance to tough commitments from some countries make a deal unlikely, trade experts and business groups say.