President Joe Biden will meet virtually Monday with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, “to protect the prosperity and security” of Americans and the peoples of the world, said a senior White House official.
In a telephone conversation with journalists, the official referred to the first formal meeting between the two leaders amid growing tensions between Washington and Beijing.
According to the spokesman, both countries are “in a fundamentally different place” than they were in the past and confirmed Washington’s interest in reaching a “stable situation. “
In that sense, he indicated that Biden knows that the competition between these two powers “has global implications,” which he said is taken “seriously . “
“But ultimately, he will meet with President Xi to protect the prosperity and security of the American people and the peoples of the world,” he added.
Among the items on the agenda, he anticipated that Biden will be “direct and sincere” about the areas of concern of the United States, including China’s behavior regarding the “rules-based international order”, trade, human rights, and the Taiwan situation.
The island, which is considered an autonomous territory with its own government and political system, is one of the main reasons for the conflict between China – which claims its sovereignty – and the United States, given that Washington is the main supplier of arms to the United States. Taiwan
The meeting, scheduled for Monday night, will be the first formal between the two leaders since Biden took office in January this year and will come after the telephone conversation between the two leaders last September.
In it, Biden and Xi acknowledged their responsibility to ensure that “competition” between their respective countries “does not lead to conflict. “
“We want to make our intentions and our priorities clear to avoid misunderstandings,” the White House official added about today’s meeting.