LIMA, Peru, Nov 13, (AP): If things had gone differently last week, US President Joe Biden could have arrived at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru on Thursday projecting confidence and pledging his successor’s cooperation with eager Latin American partners. No longer. Just as in 2016, the last time that Peru’s capital Lima hosted APEC, Donald Trump’s election victory has pulled the rug out from under a lame-duck Democrat at the high-profile summit attended by over a dozen world leaders.

The renewed prospect of Trump’s "America First” doctrine hampers Biden’s ability to reinforce the United States’ profile on his first presidential trip to South America, experts say, leaving China and its leader, Xi Jinping, to grab the limelight in America’s proverbial backyard. President Xi’s first order of business in Peru is inaugurating a $1.3 billion megaport that will put China’s regional influence on stark display. Total investment is expected to top $3.5 billion over the next decade.

"This isn’t the way the US had hoped to participate in the summit,” said Margaret Myers, the director of the China and Latin America program at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington policy group. "All eyes are going to be on the port, what Xi says about it and how he articulates relations across the Pacific.” With the U.S. seemingly headed back toward isolationism under Trump, "China will be seen as the alternative,” Myers added. Sitting 60 kilometers (37 miles) northeast of Lima, the Chancay megaport - once a serene fishing village - is perhaps the clearest sign of Latin America's reorientation.

The Chinese shipping and logistics giant Cosco holds a 60% stake in the project it developed with Peruvian partner, Volcan. "With this port, we’re looking at the entire Pacific coast, from the United States and Canada all the way to Chile,” Peruvian Foreign Minister Elmer Schialer told The Associated Press in his office on Monday. "The shipping business is being transformed.” Peruvian Economy Minister José Arista said in June during a visit to China that the country’s neighbors - Brazil, Colombia, Chile - are "making constant trips to and from to see how they can modify their supply chain to use this port,” which will cut shipping time to Beijing by 10 days.