Biden rolls out new economic initiative for women at APEC, then botches female Peruvian president’s name and jokes that ‘We’re going to extend this conference another five days’ as he prepares to complete 4-day trip

President Joe Biden approached the completion of his hosting duties at the APEC Summit in San Francisco with a joke that could mean he’s having a good time or is ready to hop aboard Air Force One to take off.

“We are going to extend this conference for another five days,” he joked as he sat at a round table with leaders from the Asia-Pacific region, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Near the end of an event pitting him against Xi, Biden touted a new women’s initiative, surrounded by a group of powerful leaders in dark suits, including only one woman, wearing white.

“I have more women in my cabinet than men, so I have to make this clear,” he told the listening world leaders. Biden then passed the “ceremonial torch” to Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, the first female president in Peru’s history.

“I know the president — excuse me, I know President Boul-te shares this commitment,” Biden said, working his way through an approximation of “Boluarte.”

“We’re going to hang out in Peru – the views will be nice too,” Biden said, smiling at her. His comment also drew a smile from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The program Biden touted is a new “women in the sustainable economy” initiative. He said partners had already committed $900 million “to increase women’s participation in blue and green industries such as forestry, clean energy, fishing and recycling.”

Boluarte has only been in power since December, when she replaced President Pedro Castillo after his ouster. She was Peru’s sixth president in five years when she took over.

It came a day after Biden, who overcame a childhood speech impediment, skipped the name of a company instead of trying to say it in a prepared speech.

“I’m going to pronounce it wrong. I’m not even going to try,” he said at the event celebrating business innovation.

“I want you to know that next year, as host of the APEC summit, Peru will move these economies forward,” Boluarte told him in her own remarks.

Then Boluarte dabbled in a bit of tour promotion for her country, following a summit where Governor Gavin Newsom trumpeted the California lifestyle and San Francisco Mayor London Breed championed her city’s eclectic neighborhoods and culture, even as the city experienced a had to participate for a month. -long cleanup efforts amid housing and homelessness issues.

“We will welcome you with the affection we always show,” Boluarte said.

‘We hope to see you all get better next year in Arequipa in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, in Urubamba, in the beautiful spring city of Trujillo, in the beautiful area of ​​the Amazon – Pucallpa, and of course in our capital, Lima, Peru, ‘ she said.

“We will work hand in hand, all so that next year APEC can shine its own light from our imperial city of Cusco, our beloved Peru, into the world,” she said.

Her comments came after Boluarte held its own meeting with Xi Jinping of China, where they discussed a major Belt and Road project in her country.

Rather Biden pressed Mexico on combating the fentanyl epidemic after the Chinese pledged to tackle the drug’s “precursor” chemicals ravaging the nation.

Biden revealed his intention to raise the sensitive issue during friendly remarks with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador – with Biden even joking that his wife first lady Jill Biden has a crush on the younger North American leader, 70.

Both men also referenced the immigration crisis, with Biden praising efforts related to “maintaining our borders” and both men calling for new “legal avenues” to enter the US.

“We work side by side to combat gun trafficking, tackle organized crime, and tackle the opioid epidemic, including fentanyl. When we talk privately, I want to tell you about my great conversation with Xi Jinping about that,” Biden told his Mexican counterpart.

Their meeting in San Francisco comes two days after powerful Chinese leader Biden said he still considers a “dictator” who has agreed to steps to limit production in China of precursor chemicals to the powerful drug. Those materials are shipped to Mexico and other Latin American countries, where the drug is contributing to rising overdose levels in the U.S., including some that Biden said this week have occurred in his home state.

Biden raised the sensitive issues of drugs and immigration after complimenting his left-wing guest on a joke about a banquet at the APEC conference Biden is hosting here in San Francisco.

“I told you sitting next to my wife, you were so captivating I was afraid she likes you more than she likes me now,” Biden joked.

Lopez Obrador, better known as AMLO, was complimentary to his host and kept his remarks uncharistically brief as the president prepared to fly home to Delaware.

“And I would also like to express and say that he is the first president in the United States in recent times who has not built walls. It is true, and we must continue to support each other, so migration is an option and not forced,” he said.

Speaking on the fentanyl issue, which is a political vulnerability for Biden, he said: “Mexico’s pledge is to continue to provide support so that we do not allow the introduction of chemical components and chemical precursors for fentanyl, because we are fully aware of the damage it entails. to America’s youth. This is a matter of humanism. It is an act of solidarity. “We are sincerely committed to continuing to help with our policy capacity to prevent drug trafficking,” he said.

He spoke of 40 million Mexicans living in the US, and welcomed new policies that allow Central Americans to apply for entry into the US from their home countries as an alternative to illegal crossings through Mexico, with “all the suffering and risks that such an undertaking entails.’

“It is a humane way to tackle the migration phenomenon,” he said.

“He is the first president in recent times to open legal routes for migration,” Lopez Obrador said of Biden.

He concluded his remarks by praising Biden, who even while in California faced even more troubling poll numbers as he faces re-election next year.

“You have an extraordinary president in the United States. A man with convictions. A good person,” he said.