President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to meet on the sidelines of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, according to a U. S. official in charge of the matter.
The two sides reached a preliminary agreement to hold a meeting during the summit when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment. He spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official added that the two sides have yet to define the main points of the exact day of the meeting, the location and other logistical aspects.
The White House said after Friday’s meetings that the two sides were “working” on a showdown between Biden and Xi on the sidelines of APEC, a forum of 21 Pacific countries.
Earlier Friday, Biden met with Yi and had an hour-long meeting with the senior Chinese official in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. The assembly, which was attended by Blinken and Sullivan, was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the option of stabilizing a tense relationship at a time of confrontation in Ukraine and Israel.
The White House said Biden “emphasized that the United States and China will have to responsibly manage their relationships and maintain open lines of communication,” and “emphasized that the United States and China will have to work together to address the global crisis. “challenges. “
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden sees the Biden-Yi caucus as “a positive progression and an opportunity to continue the conversation. “
Biden was widely expected to speak with Wang, a reciprocal action after Xi met with Blinken in June.
Beijing has not yet said whether Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next month.
Wang is on a three-day trip to Washington, where he met with senior U. S. officials. He met with Blinken on Friday morning for the second time on his trip.
On Thursday, after their first meeting, the Chinese side said “the two sides had an in-depth exchange of perspectives on China-U. S. relations and fear issues not unusual in a constructive atmosphere. “
In its statement, the U. S. State Department said the two discussed “areas of divergence” and “areas of cooperation,” while Blinken “reiterated that the United States will continue to protect our interests and values, as well as those of our allies and partners. . “
Wang said ahead of Thursday’s assembly that China’s purpose is to “return to the path of healthy, sound and sustainable progress as soon as possible. “
U. S. officials have said they will press Wang on the importance of China strengthening its role globally if it wants to be seen as a major and culpable foreign actor. The United States has been disappointed with China because of its opposition to Russia in the war. to Ukraine and its relative silence on the war between Israel and Hamas.
“China uses all its functions as an influential force to instill calm” in the Middle East, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “We know that China has relations with several countries in the region and we urge them to use them. “relationships and the lines of communication they have to advocate for calm and stability. “
According to U. S. officials, the Chinese have abundant influence over Iran, which is one of Hamas’ main backers.
Wang arrived in Washington at a time when tensions between the two countries remain high, over U. S. controls on complex-generation exports and China’s more assertive moves in the East and South China Seas.
On Thursday, the U. S. military released video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet of a U. S. B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released photographs of some of the more than 180 interceptions of U. S. fighter jets via Chinese aircraft over the past two years, part of a trend that U. S. military officials say is troubling.
The United States also renewed its warning that it would use the Philippines in the event of an armed attack as part of a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Philippine ships off a disputed sandbar in the South China Sea.
Beijing has released its own video of close encounters in the region, adding what it describes as footage of the USS Ralph Johnson making a sharp turn and crossing in front of the bow of a Chinese military ship. The U. S. destroyer also captured while sailing between two Chinese ships.
Col. Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s Defense Ministry, said in the videos that “the U. S. are the real provocateurs, risk-takers and troublemakers. “
The Pentagon rejected China’s description of the USS Ralph Johnson’s movements, saying the video only includes “shortened segments of a 90-minute interaction. “The shipment “complied with foreign law” and “operated lawfully and decisively,” the Pentagon said. saying.
During his stop in Washington, Wang was also expected to talk about Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing considers part of China’s territory. Beijing vows to capture it by force if necessary, but Washington, which has a security pact with Taiwan, opposes it. the use of force.
The Chinese president last visited the United States in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago hotel in Florida. Biden, who did so in 2021, has yet to welcome Xi to U. S. soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 assembly of mainly rich and emerging countries.
U. S. -China relations began to worsen in 2018, when the Trump administration imposed heavy price lists on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. The situation has worsened further on a variety of issues, adding human rights violations, the South China Sea, Taiwan, generation and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden-Xi assembly would bring much-needed stability between the two countries, said Yun Sun, China program director at the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank.
“The key word here is ‘stabilization’ of bilateral relations; it’s not improving, it’s stabilizing,” Sun said. “The world wants the United States and China to take a rational path and stabilize their relationship, thereby offering more certainty to the region and the global. “
___
Chris Megerian of the Associated Press contributed to this report.