The White House said that President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had spoken openly on controversial issues between the two countries and also discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine and told Xi Jinping that competition between the two countries would not should lead to a conflict.
President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the G20 summit. The two presidents held their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office nearly two years ago amid rising economic and security tensions between the two superpowers.
Biden and Xi shook hands at the start of their summit in Bali, Indonesia on Monday.
When the Chinese president welcomed his American counterpart, Biden smiled and said, “It’s nice to see you,” kicking off intense talks that are expected to last two hours. Biden assured Xi there was “no alternative” to direct talks, and he hoped to avoid a “conflict” between Washington and Beijing.
For his part, Xi told the US president, “We all care very much” about US-China relations. He added that he is ready for “frank” talks with Biden on strategic issues.
And it was White House It was previously announced that the US president intends to reopen a dialogue during his meeting on Monday with his Chinese counterpart Xi, who has just arrived in Indonesia to participate.
The White House added that Biden will also try to define “guarantees” in the context of growing tension between Washington and Beijing.
A senior White House official spoke to reporters of an American “determination” to “responsibly improve communications”, while defining “guarantees” and “clear rules” so that “competition does not turn into conflict” between the two superpowers.
“We are in competition. President Biden knows this, but he wants to make sure that competition has limits, that we build guardrails and that we have clear rules of the road, and that we do all of this to ensure that competition doesn’t turn into conflict,” he said the White House.
A US official told reporters the US president has the backing of his “allies and partners” regarding his approach. “There is broad support for our determination to build the foundation for the report to responsibly scale up communications,” he added.
For its part, China expressed its hope on Monday that a meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Joe Biden, ahead of the G20 summit in Indonesia, would put relations “on track”.
Asked by AFP about China’s expectations in the face-to-face talks in Bali, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a regular news conference: “We hope the United States will work with China to control differences, promote mutually beneficial cooperation and avoid misunderstanding.” And wrong judgments to push US-China relations on the right path and for healthy and stable development.”
The two leaders have spoken by phone or video call five times since Biden took office in 2021, but have known each other since 2017.
In addition to China’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Washington and Beijing disagree on issues ranging from trade to human rights in China’s Xinjiang region to the status of Taiwan.
The US official noted that “the world expects” the two countries to work together on certain issues and “we, as a responsible country, certainly believe we should.”
On Sunday, the US president met with the leaders of Japan and South Korea to coordinate their response to the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and ballistics programs, as well as to get input on handling China’s assertive stance in the Pacific region , on the eve of an upcoming face-to-face meeting with the Chinese president.
On Sunday, Biden told Asian leaders that lines of communication between the United States and China will remain open to prevent conflict, following the first of three summits involving world leaders this week.
