Large multilateral meetings are often derided as talk shops or expensive photo opportunities, where leaders exchange talking points and issue formulaic declarations and diplomatic boilerplate. They are feel-good encounters that bear little connection to the conduct of foreign relations. The importance of those rituals only becomes clear when they break down, as occurred last week at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit: For the first time since the inauguration of the leaders meeting in 1993, the group could not agree on a communique.

According to Peter O'Neill, prime minister of Papua New Guinea and the meeting host and chair, the blame fell on the United States and China, "the two big giants in the room," which are engaged in an increasingly bitter struggle for influence in the Asia Pacific — or Indo-Pacific — region and the fallout is spreading.

Reportedly, breakdown reflected differences over language about the World Trade Organization. A paragraph in the draft statement referred to "unfair trade practices" and to China, which angered Chinese negotiators. O'Neill noted that "APEC has got no charter over World Trade Organization. .... Those matters can be raised at the World Trade Organization." The U.S. was also said to be angered by a call for the declaration to include "opposition to unilateralism." Discussions got so heated that Chinese diplomats allegedly tried to break into the office of the Papua New Guinea foreign minister to insist on changes to the declaration, leaving only when security was called.