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US President Joe Biden is set to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping next Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area, CNN reported citing senior US administration officials.
The meeting will test whether the two leaders can slow a downward spiral in relations at a moment of heavy global turbulence. However, reportedly, the talks are not likely to soften the world's most consequential bilateral relationship. Instead, the fact that the meeting is happening at all is viewed by White House aides as a positive sign after months of friction. Moreover, the US officials stressed that the leaders hoped to develop a "framework" for managing successful competitive relations between the two powers, with the goal of clearing up misperceptions and avoiding surprises, reported CNN. Additionally, the US officials said that Biden's aides were entering the summit with realistic expectations and did not anticipate a long list of outcomes later on. As the conflict continues in West Asia and a war in Ukraine, Biden is eager to prevent another world crisis from exploding on his watch. Moreover, one of his top foreign policy priorities stands for restoring stability to the Washington-Beijing relationship, even as global tensions rise, CNN reported. The two leaders are expected to discuss various issues, including, restoring military-to-military communication between the two countries, a chief objective for Biden, who plans to press Xi on the issue. Moreover, it also includes the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, areas of potential cooperation like climate change and countering narcotics trafficking, deep disagreements over human rights issues and military escalation in the South China Sea and around Taiwan. According to the US officials, the talks would be expansive and spread out over multiple working sessions, CNN reported. Meanwhile, the US has pressured China to play a more constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war and encouraged the country to step up its role on the world stage. Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project and senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said, "Right now, neither the United States nor China is entering the meeting between President Biden and President Xi expecting to significantly improve or reset the relationship. Rather, the meeting will be about managing and stabilizing the bilateral relationship, improving communication, and reducing misunderstandings before they occur." (ANI)
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