White House Planning November Meeting Between Joe Biden, Xi Jinping

Washington DC [US]: The White House is planning for a November meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco, The Washington Post reported.

The meeting comes as an attempt to stabilize relations between the two countries, according to senior administration officials.

“It’s pretty firm” that there will be a meeting, said one administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the engagement has not yet been announced formally. “We’re beginning the process” of planning, the official said.

A second senior administration official said that Biden looks forward to meeting Xi, but that “nothing has been confirmed yet”, The Washington Post reported.

The officials said that plans will become clearer after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi comes to Washington in the coming weeks.

“China and the US are in communication on bilateral engagement and exchange,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, in an e-mail. “Both sides,” he said, “need to work in the same direction, clear obstacles and manage differences with concrete actions, and enhance dialogue and expand cooperation in good faith.”

As per The Washington Post, the in-person meeting would be the first between the leaders of the two largest economies since they met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, last November. There, both presidents emphasized the importance of face-to-face diplomacy and expressed hope they could get US-China relations back on track.