President Xi delivering his vision for the region.
Or did he? Yeah, that's right.
I mean, both of the big superpowers, the United States and China, sort of making
their pitches to Asia Pacific nations for their visions, for the future, for
strategic cooperation, as well as development cooperation.
Obviously, Joe Biden is not here at APEC.
He was at G 20. He was at ASEAN in Cambodia.
Xi Jinping has made the trip up north from Bali to Bangkok here today.
He was here yesterday and he's already met with Fumio Kishida
He's met with other leaders. And he was due to give a speech
yesterday afternoon at the APEC CEO summit ahead of the leaders gathering
that starts today. And we got an advance copy of that.
It was cancelled at the last minute. But we do have the verbatim.
He says the Asia-Pacific is no one's backyard and should not become an arena
for big power contests. No attempt to wage a new Cold War will
ever be allowed by the power or by the times.
So, again, that's his pitch. And it was a similarly worded speech to
what we've heard from the foreign minister, Wang Yi, earlier this year
long. He, of course, has made a number of
strategic meetings or visits to South Pacific Islands, including striking that
cooperation deal with the Solomon Islands.
So there are, of course, lots of geopolitics.
They are big down in the South China Sea.
The United States is trying to counter China's moves in the Indo-Pacific region
through its more recent trade agreement with 13 Pacific nations.
That's called the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework Partnership.
And that is something that Katherine Tai, the U.S.
trade representative, is here trying to pitch.
And we're going to get a speech later today.
Four from Kamala Harris, the vice president.
Is said to be giving a speech essentially defending Biden's
Indo-Pacific strategy against critics who say it will not have lasting power
or is not as dedicated, perhaps, as the Chinese vision for China's influence in
this part of the world. So that's how we stand right now.
Friday, first day of the APEC leaders summit,
Xi Jinping from your key sheet, you know, meeting there.
What's expected to be the results of that?
They have been far apart in court. Japan's been where the country is very
nervous about China's rising power. Looking to potential military
aggression, et cetera. Where do you think Xi Jinping stands on
that? And how is us going to go now between
these two leaders? Obviously, there are legacy issues
dating back to World War 2 between China and Japan.
Japan is a staunch ally of the United States.
Japan was obviously upset at the moves that were made by Beijing following
Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan and then the war games and the encircling of
Taiwan. It's a close issue to Japan.
Japan is another is an island nation. So there there's legacy issues here.
Now, she and Kishida did meet late yesterday.
They've already had their conversations and essentially both sides agreed to
that. And she agreed to work out their
differences and to work at improving bilateral relations.
Now, at the backdrop of this, I want to bring up just into our differences is
the New Zealand prime minister. I had the opportunity to speak to her
yesterday. I moderated a panel with her.
And I won't say New Zealand is necessarily a neutral party, but she
took a neutral tone yesterday and essentially said, be careful of world
powers, our politicians. She didn't name countries.
She said be careful of politicians. Strangest trying to stoke fear at a time
of high inflation and geopolitical tensions.
Here's Jacinda Arjun. Our openness is what has got us to the
point where we have seen such rapid development for APEC economies.
It is. And now for the NIKKEI period, we have
that opportunity again. We just need to bring more people with
us inclusively and our growth will be what actually allows us to continue on
in this way. If we don't, we will have dissatisfied
citizens and a more politicians who stoke fear.
Another busy day here as APEC leaders summit begins.
Two days of talks. Back to you, Heidi.