POSITIVE MEETING OUTCOMES
Amid the countries’ jostle for power, there were some bright spots from the meeting, experts noted.
The leaders agreed that humans, not artificial intelligence, would make the final decisions on the use of nuclear weapons.
“That may just sound like an obvious and not important principle, but in fact, this is the first kind of nuclear agreement that (the US) has had with China,” said Daly.
“It’s not a nonproliferation agreement, but at least we’re speaking about nuclear weapons, which is going to be a growing issue in the relationship.”
SHOW OF POWER
Daly noted that Xi was in Peru not only for the APEC meeting, but also to open up a major new port in Chancay, north of capital Lima.
“This is a story about China’s success … in the Western hemisphere, about its investments in Latin America … it’s increasing soft power there,” he said.
He noted that Xi and Biden “danced around what seems to be the fact that the two countries are already engaged in a new kind of cold war”.
“They took pains not to use that language, and yet the depth of their competition all over the world, in every domain of power – in cyberspace, in outer space – is now undeniable, and that is what will be firmly in place when Donald Trump takes office.”
