WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden arrived Thursday in Peru to start his six-day visit to Latin America for the final major international summits of his presidency, even as world leaders turn their attention to what Donald Trump’s return to the White House means for their countries.
The visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru and stops in the Amazon rainforest and at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Brazil offer Biden one of his last chances as president to meet with heads of state he’s worked with over the years.
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But world leaders' eyes are firmly affixed on Trump.
They already are burning up Trump's phone with congratulatory talks. At least one leader, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, is dusting off his golf clubs, in case the chance to bond with the golf-loving Trump should present itself.
White House officials insist that Biden's visits will be substantive, with talks on climate issues, global infrastructure, counternarcotic efforts and one-on-one meetings with global leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, and a joint meeting with South Korea's Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
The meeting with Yoon and Ishiba would aim to solidify the progress made since their initial meeting last year, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One. That includes tightening security and economic cooperation amid increasingly tense relations with China and North Korea.
It also would be an opportunity for them to discuss North Korean troops going to Russia to help with the war in Ukraine, Sullivan said.
He says the Biden administration is working to ensure the three-country meeting is “an enduring feature of American policy.” He expects it would continue under Trump, noting its bipartisan support, but acknowledged it was up to the incoming president's team.
Biden's South American trip comes a day after he met with Trump in the White House. That wide-ranging discussion touched on the conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine.
“I wanted — I asked — for his views, and he gave them to me,” Trump told The New York Post after his conversation with Biden.
Sullivan indicated that White House officials also are making clear to Trump's team that the delicate U.S.-China relationship is the “paramount priority for the incoming administration.”
He stressed the risks if stability is upended in the Taiwan Strait: “that would be catastrophic for everyone involved — for Taiwan, for Beijing, for us, for the world,” he said. “Because of the size of the risk, even if it’s not that likely, it’s something that has to be at the top of the agenda.”
Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and vows to annex it — by force if necessary. The U.S. is Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally and is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
Trump is nominating noted China hawks for key positions: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz for his national security adviser.
The White House had been working for months to arrange the meeting with Xi, whose country is the United States' most prominent economic and national security competitor.
For Xi, front of mind will be Trump's campaign promise to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese imports. White House officials avoided commenting in detail about how Biden will approach conversations with Xi and other world leaders about Trump.
Those officials say Biden also will use the summits to press allies to keep up support for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia's invasion and not lose sight on finding an end to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. That includes bringing home hostages held by Hamas for more than 13 months.
Between the summits, Biden will visit the Amazon rainforest, the first such visit by a sitting U.S. president.
James Bosworth, founder of the Latin America-focused political consultancy Hxagon, said Biden will use one of his last big moments in the international spotlight “to reassure the world that transitions of power are normal for democracies.”
“Biden will get public applause and praise, even as world leaders nervously await the transition,” Bosworth said.
Biden's meeting with Xi will likely be the most consequential moment during the American president's time in South America.
Biden has tried to maintain a steady relationship with Xi even as the U.S. administration repeatedly has raised concerns about what it sees as malign action by Beijing.
U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry to use against Ukraine. The Biden administration last month imposed sanctions on two Chinese companies accused of directly helping Russia build long-range attack drones.
Tensions flared last year after Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed across the intercontinental United States. And the Biden administration has criticized Chinese military assertiveness toward Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.
During the campaign, Trump spoke of his personal connection with Xi, which started out well during the Republican's first term before becoming strained over disputes about trade and the origins of COVID-19.
In a congratulatory message to Trump, Xi called for the U.S. and China to manage their differences and get along in a new era, according to Chinese state media.
Biden finds himself in a similar position to when then-President Barack Obama traveled to Peru in 2016 for the annual APEC leaders gathering soon after Trump's first White House victory.
World leaders peppered Obama with questions about Trump's win would mean.
“His message was to wait and see ... because we didn’t know Donald Trump,” said Victor Cha, a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration. “Now we’re in a very different situation where we do know what the first Trump administration was like."
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Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.