U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held what was likely their last meeting, with both emphasizing the need to maintain stable ties just over two months before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Biden and Xi met at the hotel where Xi was staying on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima on Saturday. There, the two shook hands before the talks — their third meeting as the rival nations’ presidents — which focused on efforts by Washington and Beijing to ease the countries’ tense relationship.
“China is ready to work with the new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences, so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted Xi as telling Biden as the meeting began
The two superpowers, Xi added, “should bear in mind the interests of the whole world, and inject more certainty and positive energy into the turbulent world.”
“If the other side is regarded as an opponent or an enemy, vicious competition and mutual harm are carried out, Sino-U.S. relations will encounter twists and turns or even regress.”
Biden, meanwhile, told Xi he was “very proud” of the progress made between the two rivals.
“We haven’t always agreed, but our conversations have always been candid and always been frank,” Biden said.
“These conversations prevent miscalculations and they ensure the competition between our two countries will not veer into conflict,” he added.
The White House said earlier it would “mark the progress” in the relationship, following a summit in California last November that saw the rivals agree to reopen high-level military-to-military channels as part of a handful of steps intended to prevent their relationship from further deteriorating.
But U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters ahead of the meeting that it would also be aimed at getting through a “delicate period of transition” and ensuring that competition with China “doesn’t veer into conflict” in the weeks before Trump takes office on Jan. 20.
Ahead of the meeting, Xi appeared to take a veiled dig at both the Biden administration and looming Trump White House’s approaches to economic issues involving China.
“The world has entered a new period of turbulence and change, with the spread of unilateralism and protectionism, an increasing fragmentation of the world economy and economic globalization encountering headwinds,” Xi said in a written speech to the APEC forum published by China’s official Xinhua News Agency on Friday
