Abbott to meet China's president

Tony Abbott is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Bali. Source: AAP

TONY Abbott has arrived in Bali for his first major international summit as prime minister, with trade liberalisation at the top of his agenda.

His first order of business at the annual APEC leaders' summit will be a meeting with one of the world's most powerful men: Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Arriving at his hotel on Sunday, Mr Abbott called APEC a very important conference for its 21 member countries.

"Australia was there at the beginning of APEC," he told reporters.

"APEC has been a very strong force for liberalisation of trade and the growth of the economies. I'm looking forward to continuing that momentum."

The prime minister is also expected to meet with the leaders of Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada and Mexico on the summit's sidelines in the coming days.

But a planned meeting with Barack Obama was cancelled after the US president decided to stay in Washington to deal with the ongoing government shutdown.

Mr Abbott is expected to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry instead.

He will also be in a position to hold further talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is hosting APEC. The pair met earlier this month when Mr Abbott travelled to Jakarta.

Trade is top of Mr Abbott's to do list, particularly the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which seek to establish a grand free trade area that would include Australia and 11 other Asia-Pacific nations.

But there are doubts about whether the TPP talks will be able to make much progress without Mr Obama.

APEC wraps up on Tuesday, and Mr Abbott will head to the tiny sultanate of Brunei for what's known as the East Asia Summit on Wednesday.

It brings together the leaders of the 10 ASEAN Southeast Asian nations, plus Australia, New Zealand, the US, Russia, China, India, Japan and South Korea.

The EAS will be focused more in regional and global security issues, such as North Korea and tensions in the South China Sea.

Mr Abbott returns to Australia on Thursday.

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