Biden, Xi to Hold First In-Person Meeting as Heads of State on Nov 14 in Bali
President Joe Biden waves as he meets virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021
US President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Bali next week, a senior US official said on Thursday.The meeting is slated for November 14, ahead of the G20 summit in the Indonesian port city on the 15th and 16th.“There’s not going be a joint statement of any sort here, and, you know, this is really not a meeting. that is being driven by deliverables,” the official added.The meeting will be their first in-person summit since both men became heads of state, although they have spoken over the phone and via video link several times. They previously met in 2011 and 2015, while Biden was US vice president.It has been speculated for months that Biden and Xi would meet at the G20 summit, especially as tensions surrounding the Chinese province of Taiwan, which is governed by an autonomous republican movement kept in power via US arms, increased exponentially following a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
AmericasBiden Has ‘No Plans’ to Meet Saudi Crown Prince on Sidelines of G20 Summit16 October, 16:31 GMTSpeaking to US state media outlet Voice of America, Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, recently said that if the talks concern China’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait, it would be “very helpful to regional peace.”“There’s been no official contact between Taiwan and China for quite some time. If the United States is able to talk to the Chinese side some of the concerns on the Taiwanese side, that will be very helpful to Taiwan as well,” Wu added.Biden told reporters on Wednesday that he hoped to find an opportunity for compromise with Xi to reduce tensions in the region.”What I want to do with him when we talk is lay out what kind of, what each of our red lines are, understand what he believes to be in the critical national interests of China, what I know to be the critical interests of the United States, and to determine whether or not they conflict with one another,” Biden said. “And if they do, how to resolve and how to work it out.”A National Defense Strategy recently published by the Pentagon referred to China as the US’ “most consequential strategic competitor for the coming decades.” It accused Beijing of seeking to upend the US-led global order in an attempt to assert its own political system and continue China’s national rejuvenation.
