Biden, Xi summit seek to avoid conflict in hours-long summit talks, Three hours of talks between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping aimed at averting conflict between the opposing giants came to a conclusion on Monday at a historic summit in Bali, Indonesia. Following months of tension over Taiwan and other problems, Xi and Biden shook hands in front of the US and Chinese flags before beginning their long-awaited meeting on the resort island ahead of a Group of 20 summit.
Biden, Xi summit seek to avoid conflict in hours-long summit talks
Beijing and Washington “share responsibility” for demonstrating to the outside world that they can “manage our differences, avoid rivalry from becoming confrontation,” according to Biden, who was seated across from Xi at a table facing them. The world has “came to a crossroads,” according to Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades who recently won a record-breaking third term. Xi told Biden this.
He was informed by Xi that “the world expects that China and the United States would manage the relationship properly.” Despite the positive public pronouncements, both countries are growing wary of one another. The United States is concerned that China has accelerated its timeframe for annexing Taiwan.
Prior to the meeting, US officials stated that Biden sought to establish “guardrails” in the US’s relationship with China and to determine how to avoid drawing “red lines” that may bring the two greatest economies in the world to blows.
The most delicate problem involves Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China claims.
While China has stepped up its threats to seize control of the island, the United States has been increasing its support for Taiwan. China responded to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in August by holding unprecedented military exercises. Biden met with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the eve of his talks with Xi, outside of a Southeast Asian summit in Cambodia. The three leaders urged for “peace and stability” on the Taiwan Strait.
Biden is also expected to push China to rein in ally North Korea after a record-breaking spate of missile tests has raised fears that Pyongyang will soon carry out its seventh nuclear test. – First in-person exchange – Xi is paying only his second overseas visit since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and will meet a number of key leaders.
He will hold the first formal sitdown with an Australian leader since 2017, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced, following a concerted pressure campaign by Beijing against the close US ally. Xi’s last in-person meeting with a US president was in 2019 with Donald Trump, who along with Biden identified China as a top international concern and the only potential challenger to US primacy on the world stage.
And though the meeting is the first time Xi and Biden have met as presidents, the pair have an unusually long history together. By Biden’s estimation, he spent 67 hours as vice president in person with Xi including on a 2011 trip to China aimed at better understanding China’s then-leader-in-waiting, and a 2017 meeting in the final days of Barack Obama’s administration.
Since entering the White House, Biden has spoken virtually five times with Xi but told him Monday there was “no substitute” for face-to-face discussions.
– Absent Putin –
Though he is engaging Xi, Biden has refused since the invasion of Ukraine to deal directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is conspicuously absent from the Bali summit. The Kremlin cited scheduling issues and has instead sent longtime foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, who arrived Sunday evening and underwent two health checks at a Bali hospital, according to an Indonesian health ministry official.
Lavrov, 72, denied reports that he was receiving treatment at a Bali hospital, telling Tass news agency that he was in his hotel preparing for the summit. Lavrov’s presence has thrown into question a customary G20 group photo and joint statement, with Russia sure to reject any explicit calls to end its invasion of Ukraine.
The G20 conference is expected to increase pressure on Russia to extend a UN-backed agreement that expires on Saturday and permits grain shipments from Ukraine, a significant exporter of food to underdeveloped countries. According to US sources, China, despite expressing verbal support for Russia, has not provided arms for the conflict in Ukraine, forcing Moscow to rely on Iran and North Korea.
A US official stated hours before the Xi-Biden discussions, “I believe there is clearly some disquiet in Beijing about what we’ve seen in terms of reckless rhetoric and conduct on the part of Russia. A day after a triumphant visit to Kherson, a crucial city taken over by the Russians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the summit by videoconference. His invitation was a compromise with summit host Indonesia.
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