Five features of APEC to know about with Trump, Putin and Xi set to attend
SPY•The 21-member APEC forum will meet in Shenzhen on November 18 and 19, with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping expected to attend. The grouping represents about 62% of global GDP and roughly half of global trade.
1. Forum and host city
Founded in 1989 as a 12-member dialogue effort, APEC is a forum for advancing regional growth, trade and investment. Its commitments are voluntary and non-binding, and decisions are reached by consensus. China is hosting for the third time, with Shenzhen serving as the venue after Shanghai in 2001 and Beijing in 2014.
2. Leaders and agenda
China has not officially confirmed its attendees, but Trump, Putin and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are among those expected. Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirmed they would attend. Topics expected to feature include energy security, trade flows, supply chains, inflation, China-US relations, rare earth supplies, artificial intelligence and tariffs.
3. Membership and tensions
APEC's 21 member economies include the United States, China, Russia, Japan and Taiwan; India is not a member. The forum's agenda also includes strains between China and Japan and continuing tension between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.
