US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met in Bali on Monday and reiterated on Monday their willingness to work together and de-escalate which brought the world’s most important bilateral relationship to one of its lowest moments, perhaps the worst since the 1970s.
This is how Biden and Xi expressed themselves at the beginning of your first meeting face-to-face as heads of state on the Indonesian island of Bali, where it will kick off this Tuesday the G20 leaders’ summit.
The first to intervene was Biden, who expressed a willingness to keep open lines of communication between China and the United States for the “responsibility” shared by the two powers.
“Our two nations share the responsibility of managing their differences, we must avoid competition becoming something akin to conflict. We must find ways to work together on pressing global issues that require our cooperation,” the US leader said.
Xi later expressed his delight at seeing Biden, with whom he had developed a close relationship when they were both vice presidents.
The Chinese president thought about it there is no “substitution for face-to-face meetings”despite both having had five phone and video conference conversations since the American arrived at the White House in January 2021.
The world at a crossroads
“The world is at a crossroads. Where do we go from here? This is a question not just for us, but for all countries. The world expects China and the United States to properly manage their relationship,” the Chinese president reflected.
In addition, Xi has expressed a desire to keep a “frank and thorough conversation” on issues of strategic importance to US-China relations regionally and globally.
The two leaders made these statements at the beginning of their meeting, which was accessible to the press and which took place in a room where there were two tables with blue tablecloths.
Each of the presidents was seated at tables with advisers and members of their governments. In the background were several American and Chinese flags.
However, the expected meeting did not begin in those structures, but in a large hall of the Mulia hotel (Nusa Dua, east Bali), where the Chinese delegation is staying and 10 minutes from the Grand Hyatt hotel, where Biden is staying.
The two leaders shook hands in greeting and smiled at each other, posing for the cameras in a photo for the story.
The bilateral appointment comes at a time of tension aggravated by the differences on the matter the Ukrainian war or, more recently, by the crisis of Strait of Taiwan and Washington-imposed restrictions on the export of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.
This is the first face-to-face meeting between Biden and Xi since the American took power in January 2021.
The last time they saw each other in person was in January 2017, when they both met at the World Economic Forum in Davos and Biden served as Vice President to Barack Obama (2009-2017).
EFE extension
Source: Clarin
