The closely watched interaction, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in the San Francisco Bay Area, could last hours and involve teams of officials from Beijing and Washington.
The meeting will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since their meeting ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia’s Bali last year.The two heads of state will have in-depth communication on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance in shaping China-U.S. relations and major issues concerning world peace and development, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of APEC’s first leaders’ meeting, Xi’s trip to APEC upon invitation reflects the great importance China attaches to Asia-Pacific economic cooperation, the spokesperson said.With mounting factors of instability and uncertainty in the world economy, there is a widely shared expectation for the Asia-Pacific to remain an economic engine to lead global growth and APEC is a key platform for economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, he said.President Xi will deliver an important speech at the meeting to fully elaborate on China’s major propositions for deepening Asia-Pacific cooperation and driving regional and global growth.“We hope that all parties will remember what brought countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific together in the first place, focus on the region’s urgent needs, deepen solidarity and cooperation, deliver on the APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040 in an all-round and balanced way, and work for positive outcomes at the meeting, to provide new growth impetus for the Asia-Pacific and the wider world and jointly build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future,” said the spokesperson.