A three-hour summit between the US President and his Chinese counterpart
The US President Joe Biden on Monday told his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, that they have a responsibility to prevent rivalry between their countries from turning into conflict, in rare talks aimed at improving relations that have reached a to its lowest level in decades.
The White House announced, Monday that US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed on the need to oppose the use or threat of nuclear weapons in Ukraine, after Biden raised the issue of Russian threats regarding nuclear use.
In their meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali on Monday, Biden and Ping condemned Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
China’s position can be seen as a rebuke to Putin from a key ally.
Russian officials said earlier that only a threat to Russia’s state security would force the use of nuclear weapons.
Before the first personal meeting between the two leaders since Biden became president, the two leaders smiled and shook hands warmly in front of a row of Chinese and US flags at a luxury hotel on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The meeting came a day before the G-20 summit, which is expected to be fraught with tensions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s great to meet you,” Biden told Xi as he put his arm around him before a meeting that lasted more than three hours.
But Biden raised, according to a White House document summarizing the content of the meeting, a number of thorny issues during the meeting, including the United States’ objection to China’s “increasingly aggressive and coercive measures towards Taiwan” and “non-market economic practices” pursued by Beijing and its practices in “Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and Human Rights more broadly”.
Biden has stated that he is committed to keeping the lines of communication open at the personal and government levels.
“As leaders of our two countries, I believe it is our duty to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition… From turning into conflict, and find ways to work together on pressing global issues that require our mutual cooperation,” Biden continued.
He cited climate change and food insecurity as problems that countries are expected to address.
The White House said that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Indonesia to follow up on the progress of the discussions.
Neither the US nor the Chinese leaders wore a face mask to prevent Covid-19, although members of the US and Chinese delegations adhered to it.
In response to Biden, the Chinese president said that the relations between the two countries do not reach global expectations.
“We need to chart the right course for China-US relations… We need to find the right direction to move forward in bilateral relations and elevate the relationship”.
“The world expects China and the United States to properly handle the issue of their relations,” he said.
