LIMA, Peru — (AP) — After two days of meetings in Lima that rarely ventured beyond platitudes in discussing the strategies of the region’s major economies, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum wrapped up on Saturday with a spirit of detente that many fear the summit may not see again for four years.
The 21 leaders from economies bordering the Pacific, including President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, had descended on Peru for the annual gathering at a time when America’s President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to withdraw the United States from its leadership of a global free trade agenda.
Few could help noting that Biden’s late entrance on Saturday for the traditional APEC family photo lent itself to political metaphor, as the rest of the leaders prepared to pose onstage before looking around to find Biden missing.
They tittered for five awkward minutes before a seemingly dazed Biden emerged and took his place in the far back corner, standing between Thailand’s 38-year-old Prime Minister …