President of Americahandjob Joe Biden, and its Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, will meet virtually “before the end of the year”, on a date not yet officially announced, the US government announced Monday.
The New York Times noted that Xi has not attended meetings abroad for nearly two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and will also not attend the next G20 leaders meeting in Rome.
The virtual meeting was announced after US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi for six hours in Zurich.
During the meeting, Yang urged the two countries to work together, according to the Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
“When China and the United States cooperates, both countries and the world will benefit; When China and the United States come face to face, both countries and the world will be seriously harmed,” he said, according to Xinhua.
According to the Agence France Presse, he had said Beijing “emphasized positive comments on relations between China and the United States” made by Biden recently.
Sullivan’s visit confirms improving contacts between Beijing and Washington, as Biden advocates setting up a “security barrier” to escalating tensions between the two powers, which escalates in the face of China’s aggressive stance toward Taiwan. States’ decision to stop selling nuclear submarines to Australia, trade disputes and human rights violations against Uighurs in Xinjiang.
On Monday, US Trade Representative Catherine Tai said she would speak to her Chinese counterpart soon as the massive trade dispute shows no end.
The White House anticipates that after the Zurich meeting, Sullivan will visit Brussels and Paris, where he will “report his meeting with Director Yang to our European allies and partners as well.”
Biden, who has known Xi for years, has held two phone conversations with the Chinese leader since he took office. The second, which lasted 90 minutes, happened last month.
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