A diminished Biden heads to APEC summit in Peru, overshadowed by China's Xi
A diminished Biden heads to APEC summit in Peru, overshadowed by China's Xi
The belief that Latin America has to choose between the U.S. and China is a "strategic defeat" for the U.S., says AS/COA's Eric Farnsworth to AP.
If things had gone differently last week, U.S. President Joe Biden could have arrived at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru on Thursday projecting confidence and pledging his successor’s cooperation with eager Latin American partners. No longer.
Just as in 2016, the last time that Peru’s capital Lima hosted APEC, Donald Trump’s election victory has pulled the rug out from under a lame-duck Democrat at the high-profile summit attended by over a dozen world leaders.
The renewed prospect of Trump’s “America First” doctrine hampers Biden’s ability to reinforce the United States’ profile on his first presidential trip to South America, experts say, leaving China and its leader, Xi Jinping, to grab the limelight in America’s proverbial backyard. [...]
The misguided notion that Latin America must choose between its two largest trading partners is “a strategic defeat” for the U.S., said Eric Farnsworth, vice president at the Washington-based Council of the Americas.
“The idea that China is somehow a better partner is increasingly being heard around the region and I think Xi wants to solidify that and amplify that,” Farnsworth said...
