Ardern had not sought a formal meeting with Biden while she was in Cambodia for the summit, saying she had met with him on the White House visit in May.
However, she had said she would try to talk to him informally on the sidelines at some point, saying that was often more useful than a formal talk.
A photo of the catch-up shows Ardern crouching next to Biden’s chair just before the leaders were due to leave the dinner.
Biden is not attending Apec in Thailand later in the week so it was her only chance.
A spokesman said it was an unplanned chat and they discussed issues that they had spoken about on her visit to the White House, “the state of the world”, and some small talk about their families. He said they had conversed earlier while waiting to be called into the dinner, but were interrupted so finished the conversation later.
It is likely she was also canvassing the impact the US mid-term elections might have on Biden’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. The news came through the next day that the Democrats had secured the majority in the Senate after those mid-terms - making Biden late to the main EAS summit, as he spoke to US media.
New Zealand officials are optimistic Ardern will have a formal meeting with President Xi Jinping of China at the Apec summit - both Biden and XI are attending a G20 summit in Indonesia in the next few days, while Ardern will leave for Vietnam on a trade delegation ahead of Apec.
Official photos also showed Ardern had talked to World Economic Forum executive chairman Klaus Schwab as she entered the dinner.
The East Asia Summit was held on Sunday. It consists of 10 South East Asian countries which form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), plus eight others with interests in the region (the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, Russia, South Korea, and India). Russia has sent diplomat Sergei Lavrov, while there are no representatives at the summit for Myanmar.
It remains part of the grouping, but members of the military junta since the 2021 coup were told not to attend.
Leaders at the summit are focusing on the economic and security challenges in the region - from the Ukraine war and its flow-on pressures on the cost of living globally, to geopolitical tensions.
Those tensions also include the involvement of China and the US in the Pacific, China’s approach to Taiwan and the South China Sea, and the military junta in Myanmar.
Ardern said there were “clouds” hanging over the region, and that New Zealand would be encouraging a united stand on Russia and Myanmar.
Ardern said countries at the summit had different positions on issues such as Russia and the war in Ukraine. “Our job is to continue to push our strong position and seek for our partners to join us. Because ultimately it is about the principle of what has happened there. What if it were us? We would want the international community to come onside and support us over what is a very, very clear breach of international law.”
In his opening address - the only part of the summit which was public - Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen did not directly refer to either country, but spoke of the challenges the region faced, and the EAS’ wish for “peace, stability, security and development” in the region.
A trade upgrade with ASEAN
The summit kicked off just as an upgrade to the Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade agreement was announced by Ardern, Australian PM Anthony Albanese and Asean representatives, after two years of work.
Ardern said it did not open new markets but did cut the red tape to get goods across borders. That would benefit exporters.
She said the Asean block of 10 countries was New Zealand’s third-largest trading group, totalling $17 billion in two-way trade each year.
“When you compare the amount of growth we’ve seen in New Zealand’s trade in this part of the world, what we trade now in a week used to be what we traded in the 1970s in a year. It’s been dramatic growth. Upgrades like this will only help it grow.”
Ardern also has a meeting with the Cambodian PM at the Peace Palace before leaving tomorrow to travel to Vietnam for a trade delegation.
By Claire Trevett
