2023 APEC summit kicks off in U.S.

The 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit kicked off in San Francisco, United States (U.S.), on Monday, November 13.

The opening of the summit started with the raising of the APEC flag by the Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, accompanied by Ambassador Matt Murray as the US Special Envoy to APEC and attended by the Heads of Mission of foreign countries.

The event will be attended by 21 members of the Asia and Pacific region, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, U.S. President Joe Biden, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. A Russian delegation will also participate.

In addition, the summit will also be attended by global business leaders from Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Salesforce. There will be 20,000 individuals from various sectors also participating in the summit, which will open from November 14 through 17.

The main event of this summit is unfolding on the sidelines: a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden. The two leaders haven’t spoken in person since they met last November during the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

The U.S. said in a statement last week that "the leaders will discuss issues in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, the continued importance of maintaining open lines of communication, and a range of regional and global issues.”

President Xi is also expected to meet Japan's Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, as the two sides are working to set up a meeting around November 16.