BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Saturday, President Joe Biden will meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Peruvian capital Lima.
Announcing this at a news conference, a senior administration official said the White House has been working towards this meeting since National Security Advisor Sullivan visited Beijing in late August.
This will be the third in-person meeting between the two leaders since President Biden assumed office, and most probably their last meeting as presidents. They previously met in Bali, in 2022, on the margins of the G20, and at Woodside, in 2023, on the margins of APEC.
'The President will use the opportunity to take stock of efforts to responsibly manage competition over the last four years, how the two countries have advanced areas of shared interest, and, even amidst deep differences and intense competition, have worked to do so,' the official told reporters.
The United Sates and China made progress in a number of areas since the Woodside Summit last year. Over the last year, the two sides have resumed military-to-military communications at all levels. At the senior level, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and the INDOPACOM commander have met or had telephone calls with their Chinese counterparts.
Biden will continue to emphasize the importance of maintaining military-to-military communications at all times and especially during times of heightened tension, according to the official.
The U.S. and China also restarted the Defense Policy Coordination Talks in January. And for the first time this year, both sides pre-notified their respective Inter Continental Ballistic Missile launches.
The outgoing U.S. President intends to use this meeting to discuss areas of difference and how to manage those differences in the period ahead.
Biden will express deep concern over China's support for Russia's war against Ukraine, as well as the deployment of more than 10,000 North Korean troops to Russia, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces.
Biden is expected to underscore the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and express his concerns that China's increased military activities around Taiwan are destabilizing and eroding the status quo.
Biden will also emphasize on his longstanding concern with Beijing's unfair trade policies and non-market economic practices, which have over time created an unlevel playing field for American workers.
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