Biden and Xi Jinping have had no contact since their November 2022 meeting in Bali.
Washington:
US President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a summit in San Francisco in November for constructive talks, the White House said on Tuesday.
The comments came days after China’s foreign minister made a rare visit to Washington to pave the way for Xi to meet with Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
China has not yet confirmed that Xi will attend.
„We aim to have a constructive dialogue between leaders in San Francisco in November,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the long-awaited talks.
„That’s what’s going to happen next month in November. We’re having a constructive conversation in San Francisco. I think I’ve confirmed that,” he added.
A senior US administration official told AFP: „There is an agreement in principle to meet in San Francisco in November. We are still working out the key details needed to finalize those plans.”
Biden and Xi have had no contact since their November 2022 meeting in Bali.
Relations have been tense for years between the world’s top two economies, which compete for influence in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, and Beijing has been boosting cooperation with Russia in an effort to undercut American dominance.
After Wang Yi, Beijing’s top diplomat, met with senior US officials last week, the White House said the two sides were „working together towards a meeting”.
But the road to talks is still „not smooth,” China’s foreign minister said on Saturday.
State news agency Xinhua reported that at a Washington event hosted by the Wang Aspen Strategy Group, the two sides „hope to quickly stabilize and improve relations and agree to work together at the San Francisco summit between the two heads of state.”
„The road to San Francisco is not smooth and cannot be left to 'auto’,” Wang warned, Xinhua reported.
The two sides must „remove obstacles, overcome obstacles, increase consensus and accumulate results,” he said.
(Other than the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)