2025 APEC: Multilateral summit for bilateral diplomacy

Kim Won-soo

The last week of October is dubbed the "super week" of diplomacy for leaders in the Asia-Pacific region. A week of summit diplomacy took place in East Asia through back-to-back summits, first with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, followed by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit hosted by Korea in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.

The events garnered a lot of media hype throughout the week. Both summits were multilateral gatherings at the regional level. But what dominated the scene were the bilateral agendas. It was U.S. President Donald Trump who stole the show despite his disdain for multilateralism. He went to Gyeongju for bilateral talks and skipped the multilateral APEC summit, leaving Korea even before the main event, the Economic Leaders’ Meeting, happened.

At APEC, media attention was mainly focused on the U.S.-China summit, Korea’s trade and investment deal with the U.S. and the possibility of another meeting between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea — all events involving Trump. Although North Korea is not a member of APEC, speculation about a possible encounter did not die down until Trump left Korea. Following Trump’s departure, the spotlight was taken over by President Xi Jinping of China, who stayed until the summit’s closing, as its next host.

In the 36 years since its birth in 1989, APEC has evolved in both width and depth. Its membership has grown from 12 to 21 economies. Its level has been elevated from ministerial to summit. Its agenda has been expanded to cover not only economic but also political and security-related issues.

Lately, however, APEC’s main focus has shifted away from its original vision of economic integration for an open Asia-Pacific community, to acting as a venue for bilateral diplomacy. The primary factor behind it is the Trump-led retreat of the U.S. from multilateralism and the liberal international order.

Case in point: the fact that the most contentious issue in negotiating the Gyeongju Declaration was reportedly whether a reference to free trade and the rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core should be retained or not. The reference was kept in the Machu Picchu Declaration following the 2024 summit in Peru, which former U.S. President Joe Biden attended. This time the reference was eventually dropped for the sake of consensus.

Despite the setbacks in its multilateral agenda, APEC still retains its relevance and utility as the premier regional forum covering the largest share of the world’s gross income. APEC provides its members with a useful platform to conduct bilateral diplomacy and build support on the issues that are close to their vital interests.

As a forum including the two most powerful states in the world, the U.S. and China, APEC serves as the default venue for the two states to engage each other at the top level. This becomes all the more important as the hegemonic competition between the two is bound to intensify as both vie for the world’s No. 1 position. APEC ensures an opportunity for the leaders of the two countries to meet at least once a year without the hassle of negotiating whether, when and where to meet. Recent trends clearly show APEC has become the preferred venue for bilateral summit meetings, not only for the two states but also for other countries in the region that have pressing bilateral agendas.

In this regard, Korea has a good track record with APEC. In 1991, Korea, as the host of the then-ministerial meeting, facilitated the simultaneous admission of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong as member economies, not countries, into APEC. This admission helped pave the way for the normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and China in 1992.

The 2025 APEC summit also opened new chapters of diplomacy for the Lee Jae Myung administration with its neighbors. A trade deal seems to have been struck — with a big sigh of relief — at the Korea-U.S. summit. Xi of China paid his first state visit in 11 years and spent quality time with Lee to establish personal rapport. Japan’s new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, made her first visit to Korea since taking office.

Over the last two months, Korea was lucky to play consecutive chairing roles for two premier multilateral institutions, the United Nations Security Council in September and APEC last week, successfully living up to the expectations of the international community.

Now is the time to move beyond the fanfare of summit diplomacy. Team Korea must focus on the coolheaded execution of both its multilateral and bilateral agendas. The devil is always in the details, so all discussions require careful follow-up consultations and negotiations with the concerned partners.

Moreover, North Korea was the elephant in the room. Managing inter-Korean challenges is a complex equation that requires the South to play a proactive role in engaging all of its neighbors, including the North.

Kim Won-soo is the former under-secretary-general of the United Nations and the High Representative for Disarmament. He is now the Rector of the Global Academy for Future Civilizations and chair professor at Kyung Hee University in Korea.