Inside Out | How Joe Biden, Xi Jinping and Apec brought hope to our troubled world
- That the US and China reached agreements, however modest, on military communication and climate change, is cause for hope
- Beyond the spotlight, it is the trust built among officials through various Apec working groups that makes the headline-grabbing agreements possible
For the former, I have found the news unbearable to watch, not just because of the unrelenting horror of it, but because of the absence of any plausible end. One tragic comment haunts me – that of a Jewish father of a girl killed by Hamas suicide bombers: “We are doomed to live here together and we have to choose – whether to share this land or to share the graveyard under it.”
For the latter, the meeting brought hope, not just because of its constructiveness – though its outcomes were admittedly modest – but because it was set against the backdrop of the annual leaders’ meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, an oft-dismissed platform that stands firm as a lonely bulwark in defence of multilateral cooperation.
Many in the world’s commentariat have been disdainful of Apec through its three decades. Because it has no treaty-making powers, it is criticised as an ineffectual talkshop – four adjectives in search of a noun, they say.
I have always disagreed – though I confess bias because I was for more than a decade up to 2021 heavily involved in supporting Hong Kong’s business input to Apec.
One of Apec’s greatest strengths is the very fact that it has no treaty-making powers. Its focus on non-binding agreements keeps the lawyers out of the room, immeasurably shortening the time taken to reach agreement, and the length of the agreements reached.