Sawt Falasteen - China's Xi meets South Korean leader, capping APEC summit

The talks on the sidelines of the APEC gathering came the final day of Xi's first trip to South Korea in over a decade, and a day after his meeting with Canada's premier that was a reset of the nations' damaged ties.

Trump had flown to South Korea for the summit, but promptly jetted home Thursday after sealing a trade war pause with Xi, with the two agreeing to dial down a dispute that has roiled markets and disrupted global supply chains.

Trump's departure left the Chinese leader to take centre stage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which he has framed Beijing as a counterweight to an American-led international order.

Speaking at the summit's closing ceremony on Saturday, Xi said next year's APEC meeting would take place in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Leaders also agreed to deepen cooperation on artificial intelligence as well as issues like low birth rates, population aging and urbanisation.

The Chinese leader has used the summit to rekindle old ties with nations frozen by Beijing for years.

Xi met on Friday with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the event -- the first formal talks between the two countries' leaders since 2017.

He told the Liberal leader he was determined to work together to get relations back on the "right track" and invited Carney to visit China.

Xi also sat down with Japan's premier Sanae Takaichi for the first time since she was appointed in October.

She said she told Xi that she wanted a "strategic and mutually beneficial relationship between Japan and China".

But she told reporters that she also raised a number of thorny issues with the Chinese leader, saying that it was "important for us to engage in direct, candid dialogue".

The Chinese leader then turned his attention to the South Korean president in what will be their first sit-down meeting since Lee's election in June.

Lee welcomed Xi at a grand opening ceremony complete with soldiers wearing traditional garb, footage shared by South Korean broadcaster Yonhap TV showed.

- Lee to 'reassure' Beijing -

Seoul has long trodden a fine line between top trading partner China and defence guarantor the United States.

Relations with China soured in 2016 after Seoul agreed to deploy the US-made THAAD missile defence system.

Beijing hit back with sweeping economic retaliation, restricting South Korean businesses and banning group tours.

Cultural spats -- including China's claims over the origins of the Korean staple dish Kimchi -- have also soured public opinion against Beijing.

South Korea -- which this week also agreed a multibillion dollar economic deal with the United States -- remains heavily dependent on trade with its vast Asian neighbour.

Lee will likely try to "reassure Beijing that South Korea's alignment with the United States does not preclude pragmatic economic engagement with China," Seong-Hyon Lee, a scholar at the Harvard University Asia Center.

The South Korean leader is keen to "seek a measure of economic stability and a more predictable floor in bilateral relations," he told AFP.

Also hanging over relations are Beijing's close ties with North Korea, which remains technically at war with the South.

Lee plans to raise the issue of "denuclearisation" with the Chinese leader, as well as broader peace efforts on the peninsula, Seoul's presidential office said.

Ahead of Lee and Xi's meeting, Pyongyang dismissed Seoul's hopes for denuclearisation as a "pipedream" which "can never be realized even if it talks about it a thousand times".

Speaking to reporters ahead of his meeting with Xi, Lee said Beijing had a key role to play "in achieving peace and stability on the Korean peninsula".

"A stable peninsula is essential for stability in Northeast Asia, and that in turn aligns with China's own interests. We expect China to play a significant role in this regard," he said.

Z.Ramadan--SF-PST