The president of USAJoe Biden, will meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on November 15 on the sidelines of the Forum Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in San Francisco, officials from both powers confirmed this Friday.
“Our goal will be to try to take steps that stabilize relations between the United States and China, clear up certain misunderstandings, and open new lines of communication.“said a senior US official, who requested anonymity, during a press interview on Thursday. His comments were embargoed until Friday.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry reported that Xi will travel to San Francisco from November 14 to 17 to attend the “meeting of heads of state of China and the United States” while confirming for the first time that he plans to attend the APEC leaders meeting.
This will be the second meeting between the two leaders since Biden he took office in January 2021, and his seventh conversation since that date.
It will also be Xi’s first visit to the United States since 2017. San Francisco will also host the APEC summit, which will be held from November 12 to 18.
Biden plans to warn his Chinese counterpart that Americans are “extremely concerned” about possible interference from Beijing in Taiwan’s presidential elections in 2024, a senior US official said.
He estimated that next year, with the Taiwanese elections and the November presidential elections in the United States, it could be “quite turbulent” for relations between Washington and Beijing.
“We are also concerned about the unprecedented dangerous and provocative escalation of (Chinese) military activities around Taiwan”, he added, indicating that Biden will discuss that issue at the summit.
However, he will repeat to China, which claims sovereignty over the island, that Washington does not support Taiwan independence and that, therefore, US policy on the matter has not changed.
military communications
Taiwan is one of the main points of friction between the two superpowers. China suspended most regular military communications with the United States in the summer of 2022, following a visit by then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island.
Maintaining a dialogue with China among senior military officials, but also at a more operational level, is “absolutely essential” to avoid potentially dangerous misunderstandings, said the senior US official.
“The Chinese are reluctant and therefore the president (Biden) will push resolutely next week” to reestablish these crucial lines of communication between the two nuclear powers, said the senior official cited above.
His colleague warned that one should not expect a “long list of concrete results”, ensuring that the objective of the meeting was “manage rivalry with Beijing, and that the United States had expectations “realistic”.
Senior officials indicated that the main international issues of the moment will be discussed, in particular the military confrontations between Israel and Hamas.
Biden wait to China “say very clearly, as part of its emerging relationship with Iran, that it is essential that (Tehran) does not seek to escalate or expand” this conflict.
The senior official noted that this summit will take place in a context in which the United States enjoys good economic health and maintains intense diplomatic activity to strengthen its alliances in Asia.
The meeting will take place in several “sessions”, as happened a year ago in Bali (Indonesia), when they met for about three hours on the sidelines of the G20, these sources indicated.
Source: Gestion
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