Harris announces San Francisco as 2023 APEC host city

San Francisco will be the site of next year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Vice President Kamala Harris announced, giving the US a high-profile chance to showcase its vision for the region’s future. 

The 2023 APEC summit will be held the week of Nov. 12 in San Francisco, Harris said in a statement Saturday while attending this year’s gathering in Bangkok. The location at the heart of Silicon Valley will give the Biden administration an opportunity to highlight America’s technological dominance at a time of increasingly fraught competition with China. 

“Our host year will demonstrate the enduring economic commitment of the United States to the Indo-Pacific,” Harris said. “We are working to strengthen our economic relationships throughout the region, including by increasing two-way trade flows and the free flow of capital, which supports millions of American jobs.”

Harris -- an Oakland native who previously represented California in the US Senate and served as San Francisco district attorney -- was in Thailand to represent US President Joe Biden at the APEC leaders meeting. 

The US is seeking to reaffirm its commitment to the fast-growing region as China expands its economic influence and military might. Harris met briefly with President Xi Jinping as Asia-Pacific leaders assembled for the final round of meetings in Bangkok, just days after Biden held his first face-to-face summit with the Chinese president in Bali, Indonesia.

The Bangkok meeting became a forum for leaders to wrangle over Russia’s war in Ukraine and its fallout. While most members strongly condemned the war, “there were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions,” summit leaders said in a declaration Saturday.  

APEC leaders also discussed nuclear weapons and “everyone was concerned about it,” Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha told a briefing. On Friday, Harris held an impromptu meeting with leaders of US allies and condemned North Korea’s test of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile.

The leaders reiterated the bloc’s commitment to a rules-based multilateral trading system and cited progress in advancing the Free-Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. They also endorsed the so-called bio-circular-green economy concept championed by Thailand to ensure a sustainable and inclusive world in the post-pandemic era.

After San Francisco, the summit will move to Peru and South Korea in 2024 and 2025, respectively.