Washington/Beijing: US President Joe Biden has spoken to the President of China and his counterpart Xi Jinping. The White House said that the US President spoke to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time in seven months on Thursday. A White House official said Biden has sent a message to Jinping that the US wants “the two countries to be competitive, but there should be no such situation between the two countries in the future where there may be situations of conflict.”
The purpose of the talks between the two was to ensure that the ‘competition’ between the two powers did not take the form of ‘conflict’. This conversation has taken place at a time when the US is angry with the way China is handling cyber security breaches, the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, the White House described Chinese trade rules as ‘coercive and unfair’. According to the news agency AFP, on the condition of anonymity, a White House official said that the purpose of this conversation was to fix the responsibility of the relationship between the two countries.
Dialogue on ‘comprehensive and strategic’ issues
The official said the talks were focused on “broad and strategic” issues. However, in this conversation, no concrete decision was taken on the issues already hanging in the balance or the summit between Biden-Jinping. The official said that our goal is that China and America reach a stable position. The White House hopes that despite growing differences, the two sides can work together on issues including climate change and preventing the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula.
The White House said during the talks the leaders agreed to “openly and directly” talks on issues where nations differ.
