US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will maintain a digital summit on Monday to debate methods to “responsibly manage” the competitors between the 2 international locations, in addition to methods to work collectively the place their pursuits align, the White House introduced on Friday.
US officers mentioned final month that that they had reached a tentative settlement with China to carry a digital assembly between Biden and Xi earlier than the top of the 12 months, as a part of an effort to make sure stability in one of many world’s most consequential and fraught relationships.“In the evening of Monday November 15 in Washington, DC, President Joseph R Biden, Jr. will meet virtually with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki mentioned.“Following their September 9 phone call, the two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition between the United States and the PRC, as well as ways to work together where our interests align,” she mentioned.“Throughout, President Biden will make clear US intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with the PRC,” Psaki mentioned in a press release.ALSO READ | Biden, Xi maintain first talks in seven months, talk about avoiding battle Tensions between the US and China have escalated within the final a number of years.President Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, adopted a troublesome stance on China, starting with commerce. Trump levied tariffs on billions of {dollars}’ price of imports from China, prompting retaliation from Beijing.The Biden administration has maintained Trump’s powerful place, and labored extra with conventional US allies to collectively put strain on Beijing on a variety of points, together with human rights, Taiwan, Xinjiang and Tibet.Biden has additionally stepped up America’s engagement within the Indo-Pacific area, which has seen aggressive strikes by the Chinese army.However, in a shock transfer, China and the US this week introduced at that the 2 international locations will enhance local weather co-operation. The US and China are the world’s two largest CO2 emitters.ALSO READ | As US-China relations thaw underneath Biden, Beijing warns, ‘don’t play Taiwan card’The announcement by the 2 international rivals was made on Wednesday on the COP26 local weather summit in Glasgow.The final time Biden and Xi spoke was in September, in a cellphone name that lasted roughly 90 minutes.The two leaders additionally spoke for 2 hours in February — their first cellphone name since Biden took workplace in January this 12 months.The tentative settlement to carry a digital summit between Xi and Biden was the results of an prolonged, six-hour assembly between Biden’s nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s high diplomat, Yang Jiechi in Switzerland, simply days after Beijing despatched record-breaking numbers of struggle planes into Taiwan’s defence zone.President Xi has not left China in 21 months, following strikes to tighten the nation’s borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He skipped the G20 summit in late October, in addition to the COP26 local weather convention in Scotland this month.ALSO READ | Climate change: How US-China Glasgow deal might assist battle international warming