SAN FRANCISCO: US President Joe Biden praised the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as constructive and productive, saying that the...
SAN FRANCISCO: US President Joe Biden praised the meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as constructive and productive, saying that the sides managed to achieve important progress.
"I’ve just concluded a day of meetings with President Xi, and I believe they were some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had," he wrote on the X social network, formerly known as Twitter. "We built on groundwork laid over the past several months of diplomacy between our countries and made important progress."
Later in the day, Biden announced that his country was resuming direct military contacts with Beijing.
"We're back to direct, open, clear, direct communications," Biden announced at a press conference following the meeting. "Vital miscalculations on either side can cause real, real trouble with a country like China or any other major country."
Also, China and the United States agreed to cooperate in anti-drug efforts.
"We are restarting cooperation between the United States and the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to counter narcotics," Biden said. "We're taking action to significantly reduce the flow of precursor chemicals <…> from China to the Western Hemisphere. It's going to save lives."
According to the Xinhua news agency report, the United States and China will establish a working group on cooperation in combating illegal drug trafficking.
The two leaders will continue intense diplomatic contacts, including direct phone calls, Biden told reporters.
According to the US president, the sides exchanged opinions on a number of regional and global issues, including the conflict in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East and the South China Sea.
The meeting took place at Filoli Historic House, a secluded estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. Biden and Xi met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit currently under way in San Francisco.
It was the seventh meeting between the presidents of China and the United States since Biden took office in January 2021, and their second face-to-face talks. The two presidents met in person for the first time in November 2022, on Indonesia’s resort city of Bali.
-News Feed
COMMENTS