White House plans another call between Joe Biden, Xi Jinping – Gudstory

The White House statement said the two sides were pursuing “additional high-level diplomacy,” including a call between President Biden and President Xi.

The development comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held candid talks in Bangkok with the aim of maintaining contacts, both sides said, with Wang stressing that “Taiwan’s independence “This is the biggest threat to China-US relations.

The meeting came just two months after US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

China and the United States had a rocky start to 2023 but met more frequently in the second half of the year to try to stabilize relations ahead of democratic Taiwan’s presidential transition in May and a potentially acrimonious 2024 U.S. election campaign. of.

China’s struggling economy could also reduce Beijing’s appetite for a more combative relationship with Washington amid improving Chinese relations with Russia.

Wang and Sullivan agreed to properly handle important and sensitive issues in US-China relations, China’s Foreign Ministry said, and for Xi and Biden to “maintain regular contacts to provide strategic guidance for bilateral relations.. .And making good use of the current strategic “communication link”.

In San Francisco, Xi and Biden agreed to open a presidential hotline, resume military-to-military communications and work to curb fentanyl production, but differences remained over Taiwan.

China claims the island as its own and has never given up using force to bring it under its control. Taiwan strongly objects to China’s sovereignty claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.

Saturday’s meeting was the latest quiet conversation between Wang and Sullivan, who reports directly to Biden, who previously met away from the media to try to cool the temperature.

According to a statement from the Foreign Ministry, Wang told Sullivan that the two countries should treat each other equally and respect their core interests, not undermine them, and to establish “the right “Mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation should create a path for China and the United States to come together”.

Wang said Taiwan is China’s internal matter, and the recent election there “cannot change the fundamental fact that Taiwan is part of China”.

China on Thursday criticized the United States for creating “trouble and provocation” after the US Navy sent its first warship to the sensitive waters separating China and Taiwan following the election.

The United States is Taiwan’s largest ally and arms supplier, but accepts China’s position that there is “one China” and Taiwan is part of it.

“The biggest threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is ‘Taiwan independence’ and the biggest challenge to China-US relations is also ‘Taiwan independence’,” Wang was quoted as saying.

Wang told Sullivan that all countries have national security concerns, “but they must be legitimate and reasonable,” the statement said.

The White House said in a statement that both Wang and Sullivan recognized recent progress in resuming military-to-military communications and the importance of maintaining those channels.

“Mr. Sullivan emphasized that although the United States and China are in competition, both countries need to prevent this from turning into conflict or confrontation.”

It said the two countries will hold the first meeting of the China-US Intergovernmental Dialogue Mechanism on Artificial Intelligence this spring.

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Published: 27 January 2024, 07:37 PM IST