BEIJING- U.S. President Barack Obama landed in Beijing on Monday ahead of a summit of Asian-Pacific regional leaders in the Chinese capital.
He joined Russian President, Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe and Australian Premier, Tony Abbott,who arrived over the weekend for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting on Monday and Tuesday.
Obama is due to hold talks with Abbott and new Indonesian President, Joko Widodo on the sidelines of the summit.
He is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Chinese President, Xi Jinpin on Wednesday.
One of the key topics during the regional forum would be trade, where the U.S. and China were expected to push for progress on competing agreements.
However, members of APEC had agreed to move forward on the Beijing-backed Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) deal for Pacific countries.
For their part, U.S. negotiators have reportedly agreed to tone down their plan for discussions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at the APEC summit and said any such talks would now be kept low-key.
According to Xinhua News Agency, China and South Korea announced that they had “virtually” reached a free trade deal during a meeting between their leaders.
APEC is an inter-governmental forum with 21 member countries and regions that seek to promote sustainable growth and economic integration, and reduce trade barriers across the Asia-Pacific region.
Report says a welcome dinner for the APEC leaders was to be held on Monday evening.