After the virtual summit held on 12 November 2021, the APEC leaders issued the Auckland Declaration.

[3] The official theme of the APEC New Zealand 2021 is "Join, Work, Grow.

It was chosen to reflect the Asia Pacific region's ability of work together through the COVID-19 pandemic.

This was the first APEC Meeting for United States President Joe Biden, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after their inaugurations and appointments on 20 January 2021, 28 July 2021, 21 August 2021, and 4 October 2021, respectively.

It was also the last APEC meeting for Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison who stepped down on 11 March 2022 (following the 2021 Chilean election), 9 May 2022 (following the 2022 South Korean presidential election), 30 June 2022 (following the 2022 Philippine presidential election and the inauguration of Bongbong Marcos), 7 December 2022 (following the 2022 Peruvian self-coup attempt; he would later skip next year's meeting), 1 July 2022 (following the 2022 Hong Kong election), and 23 May 2022 (following the 2022 Australian federal election), respectively.