WASHINGTON, Nov 9 — US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet on November 15 in San Francisco in what will be the rival powers’ first summit in a year, informed sources said yesterday.
The two sides have not formally announced the date but have made arrangements to hold the meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, which the United States is hosting, according to a US official and a Washington-based diplomat, both speaking on condition of anonymity.
The two governments have not yet publicly confirmed the Xi-Biden summit but have given wide indications that they expect it to take place.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on October 31 that Washington hoped for a “constructive conversation in San Francisco” between the two presidents.
The summit would be the first between the two leaders since they held lengthy talks in November 2022 in Bali on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit.
Biden and Xi both spoke positively about those talks, saying they were looking for ways to avoid conflict.
But tensions have repeatedly resurfaced, with the United States protesting earlier this year what it described as a Chinese surveillance balloon over US soil.
China in turn has been outraged by growing US pressure including restrictions on high-tech chips, which Washington fears Beijing will put to military use.
Tensions are particularly high over Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy that Beijing claims and has not ruled out taking by force.
China has staged major military exercises in response to pro-Taiwan actions by leaders in the US Congress. — AFP
