US uses APEC Summit to improve relations with China

Analysts say Russia could use the conference to highlight its economic resilience. Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics at the National Research University of Russia, said the San Francisco event would not change anything in Russia-US relations.

"The issue of Russia is not one of the main topics of this summit. The main issue is the United States and China. The United States is the host of this year's summit and we realize that they are our main strategic opponent, waging a hybrid war against us. I think that the APEC Summit will not change anything for Russia," the analyst said.

Suslov said the highlight of the APEC Summit will be the US-China summit. He said the purpose of this meeting is to end the escalation of confrontation between the two countries, which is something that both sides are interested in.

“Even if both sides realize that further escalation of the confrontation is inevitable, at present, neither side is interested in further escalating this confrontation, because the US will hold a presidential election next year and things will get busy. Besides, the economies of both the US and China are not doing very well. Thus, neither China nor the US is interested in escalating the confrontation,” the analyst said.

Suslov stressed that it was appropriate for Russia to send a representative to the conference. “The United States has declared that it will comply with the sanctions. This excludes the participation of the president, the foreign minister, the prime minister. This is the current reality,” he said.

Russia is resilient

​Meanwhile, Alexey Maslov, director of the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University, believes that Russia's low level of representation at the summit will not prevent the country from pushing its agenda. "To be precise, APEC has always been a forum for discussion, not a place for decision-making. In recent times, APEC, as a forum that brings together people who want to talk to each other, has created a convenient platform. Therefore, the lack of adequate representation will not worsen the situation in Russia in any way," the analyst said.

"The most important thing for Russia is to show how resilient its current position is. Moscow will use this event to demonstrate its sustainable development goals for the next few years and to convey that the Russian economy is completely problem-free... Russia's task is to demonstrate that some of the problems that have arisen today do not lead to the collapse of individual economies, but to the creation of new economic alliances and models of relations, such as Russia-China or Russia-Asia," Maslov added.

Analysts predict Washington will continue to push its anti-China agenda at the APEC Summit, but one of the key questions is how harshly the US can criticize China.

"The recent sanctions against China have been quite painful for the country, but they have accelerated the rapid transformation of the Chinese economy, especially in the high-tech sector. So in this regard, there are not many options for the US to continue to put economic pressure on China. Beijing will now be quite tough in defending its decisions from the perspective of economic development," Maslov said.

​Goal of the US-China summit

US President Joe Biden said on November 14 that his goal in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping is to resume normal communication between the two superpowers, including military-to-military contacts. Speaking to reporters after a speech on climate change at the White House, President Biden said he is trying to change the relationship between the US and China for the better after a period of tension.

Asked how he would measure success in his highly anticipated summit with President Xi Jinping, President Biden said: "To get back to normalcy, to exchange letters and to be able to pick up the phone and talk to each other in times of crisis, and to be able to make sure that our militaries are still communicating with each other."

Mr Biden said it would be a win-win for everyone if ordinary people in China had a decent-paying job. “But I’m not going to continue to support the notion that in order to invest in China, we have to hand over all of our trade secrets,” he said.

The US and Chinese leaders will meet on Wednesday (November 14) local time in San Francisco. This will be the second face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Mr. Biden took office in January 2021./.