President Biden heads to international summits in Peru and Brazil as world leaders brace for Trump’s presidency

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden begins his six-day visit to Peru and Brazil on Thursday for the last major international summits of his presidency, 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 the heads of state he has worked with over the years.

But the eyes of world leaders are firmly on Trump.

They already are Setting Trump’s phone on fire with congratulatory calls and taking stock of his choices for the key positions in national security and foreign policy.

At least one leader, the South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, is dusting golf clubs he hasn’t used in eight years, in case the opportunity arises to bond with the golf-loving Trump.

“This will not be a swan song for Biden,” said Erin Murphy, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “He is not only a lame duck, but also a super lame duck because his successor will pursue a completely different policy.”

White House officials emphasize that Biden’s visits to APEC and the G20 will be substantial, with discussions on climate issues, global infrastructure, counter-narcotics efforts and one-on-one meetings with world leaders. including Chinese President Xi Jinpingand a joint meeting with Yoon of South Korea and the Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

“He will deliver the same message he has had for the past four years as president, which is that he believes America’s allies are critical to America’s national security,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said after outcome to reporters. Biden hosted Trump for Oval Office talks Wednesday. “They make us stronger. They multiply our possibilities. They take a burden off our shoulders.”

That broad discussion between the Democratic president and the Republican president-elect concerned the conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine.

“I wanted – I asked – for his views, and he gave them to me,” Trump said told The New York Post after his conversation with Biden.

Sullivan indicated that White House officials are also making clear to Trump’s team that the delicate U.S.-China relationship is the “first priority for the new administration.”

Trump has announced he will do so nominate Senator Marco Rubio of Florida for Secretary of State and that Florida Representative Mike Waltz will be his national security advisor. Both Republican lawmakers are noted Chinese hawks.

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 rival.

For Xi, Trump’s campaign promise to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese imports will be paramount. White House officials avoided commenting in detail on how Biden will approach conversations with Xi and other world leaders about Trump.

Those officials say Biden will also use the summits to pressure allies to maintain support for Ukraine as it tries to fend off. The invasion of Russia and not lose sight of the end of the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. That includes bringing home hostages held by Hamas for more than thirteen months.

Between summits, Biden will visit the Amazon rainforest, the first visit by a sitting US president.

James Bosworth, founder of 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 transfers of power are normal for democracies.”

“Biden will receive 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 US president’s stay in South America.

It will be their first conversation since a phone call in April. They last met in person at a California estate on the sidelines of last year’s APEC summit.

Biden has sought to maintain a steady relationship with Xi even as the U.S. government has repeatedly expressed concern about what it sees as malign action by Beijing.

U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that China has increased sales to Russia enormously of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow uses to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use against Ukraine. The Biden administration last month imposed sanctions on two Chinese companies accused of directly helping Russia build drones for long-range strikes.

Tensions flared last year after Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon flying across the intercontinental United States. And the Biden administration has criticized Chinese military assertiveness toward Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Sullivan said he expected Biden would also launch a U.S. investigation into one alleged Chinese hacking operation targeting cellphones used by Trump, newly elected Vice President JD Vance and people involved in Democrat Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

During the campaign, Trump talked about his personal bond with Xi, which started off well during the Republican’s first term before coming under strain over disputes over trade and the origins of COVID-19.

In a congratulatory message to Trump, Xi called on the US and China to manage their differences and get along in a new era, Chinese state media said.

Biden finds himself in a position somewhat similar to when then-President Barack Obama traveled to Peru for the annual meeting of APEC leaders in 2016, shortly after Trump’s first victory in the White House.

World leaders bombarded Obama with questions about what Trump’s surprise victory would mean. Obama urged leaders to be patient and see how things would go under Trump, who has pursued a protectionist “America First” agenda.

“Obama got a lot of questions about Trump, and 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 are in a very different situation where we do know what the first Trump administration looked like.”

___

Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.