U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping said on Monday they are ready to continue candid and in-depth exchange of views and open and honest dialogue.
The leaders met on Monday ahead of the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. It has been over 50 years since China and the U.S. started initial contact and established diplomatic relations, said Xi.
He added that the current state of relations between the two global powers is what both sides are concerned about.
“But such a state does not conform to the fundamental interests of our two countries and peoples, nor does it conform to the expectations of the international community,” the Chinese president explained.
#BREAKING Xi told Biden world 'big enough' for both US and China to prosper, they 'share more, not less, common interests': Chinese foreign ministry pic.twitter.com/BFmSLJvf1l
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) November 14, 2022
“The international community universally expects that China and the United States will properly handle their relationship. Our meeting today has probably attracted the world’s greatest attention,” he pointed out.
“We should work with all countries to bring more hope to world peace… I am ready to have a candid and in-depth exchange of views with Mr. President [Biden] on issues of strategic importance in China-U.S. relations and on major global and regional issues at our meeting today,” Xi Jinping said.
Both countries can ‘manage differences’
“We share responsibilities, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming anything near conflict, and find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation,” Joe Biden assessed.
Today, I met with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China.
We discussed our responsibility to prevent the competition between our countries from veering into conflict and finding ways to work together on shared challenges that affect the international community. pic.twitter.com/ufneHdcyCF
— President Biden (@POTUS) November 14, 2022
“So President Xi, I look forward to our continuing an ongoing, open, and honest dialog we have always had. And I thank you for the opportunity,” he told his Chinese counterpart.
As the U.S. president reported, both sides have set up a mechanism to enable more frequent communications, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China to follow-up on discussions.