Xi Jinping with Kamala Harris, another sign of rapprochement between China and the United States

US Vice President Kamala Harris and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on Saturday to broaden trade between the two rival countries conciliatory tone from the summit between the Chinese leader and his American counterpart Joe Biden.

Harris and Xi had a brief meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in Bangkok. Russia, Washington’s other opponent, appeared isolated, without a strong personality here to defend the invasion of Ukraine, which “the majority” of the members of the group condemned in a joint statement.

Their first meeting follows the dynamic initiated by Biden and Xi, who committed to reducing tensions between the two rival superpowers on Monday in their three-hour meeting in Bali, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, which brings together the world’s largest economies.

Harris reinforced Biden’s message that both countries must “keep the lines of communication open to responsibly manage competition between our countries,” a White House official said on condition of anonymity.

For his part, Xi Jinping hopes the world’s two largest economies “reduce misunderstandings and misjudgments” to promote “the return of healthy and stable relations,” he said, quoted by state media.

New image

In Bali and then in Bangkok, Xi, at the height of his power after winning a historic third term, saw numerous foreign leaders, a sign perceived as a willingness to present himself as a responsible leader, ready to face global challenges.

His meeting with Biden, the first face-to-face since the Democratic president came to power, was “strategic and constructive and has an important significance in guiding relations” between Beijing and Washington which, from Taiwan to the war in Ukraine , they go on the slippery ground.

Sign of détente, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, will travel to China in early 2023, what would be the first visit by a senior US diplomat since 2018.

Blinken told reporters in Bangkok that the contacts with Beijing were aimed at ensuring that competition between the two countries “does not turn into a conflict” and to find areas of cooperation on global issues such as climate change.

Xi Jinping, who hasn’t visited the United States since 2017, could do so in 2023 for the upcoming APEC summit in San Francisco.

North Korea

On the Indonesian island of Bali, Biden met with Xi for three hours and asked him to help him contain ally North Korea, increasingly feared by Washington and Seoul after the recent unprecedented series of ballistic missile launches by Pyongyang.

China must use its influence over Kim Jong-un’s regime, of which it is the main diplomatic and economic ally, to encourage it “not to go in this provocative direction, which only destabilizes the region and the world,” an official said. Use. Official Friday of the United States.

Harris held emergency talks on Friday with the prime ministers of Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and New Zealand about North Korean missile launches.

The war in Ukraine is another point of contention between Washington and Beijing, which claims a neutral stance against the Russian invasion despite calls to publicly condemn Moscow.

The final communiqué from APEC, concluded after a day and a half of discussions, recalled this divergence.

“Most members condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed that it causes immense human suffering and exacerbates existing fragilities in the global economy,” the statement read.

After Thailand, Harris is expected on Tuesday in the Philippine province of Palawan, bordering the South China Sea, largely claimed by Beijing. He will become the highest-ranking US official to visit her.

The APEC summit concluded an intense diplomatic sequence in the region, following the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Phnom Penh and the G20 summit in Bali.

Source: AFP

B. C