Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping opened their high-stakes summit in Bali with a handshake on Monday, and with both men stressing the need to manage differences and avoid conflict.
“The world has come to a crossroads,” Xi said vowing a “candid” discussion of issues that have riven relations between the world’s two leading powers. “The world expects that China and the United States will properly handle the relationship,” he said.
For his part, Biden greeted Xi with a smile that belied the growing competition between the nation that has defined the last century and a rival that seeks to define the next one. Biden said he wanted the United States and China to “manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming conflict.”
A Positive Step?
All eyes are on whether the US and China would take the G20 chance to advance upon the deteriorating ties between the countries after Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit. Reports had said that while Biden will make clear that the US is not seeking a conflict with Beijing during his meeting Xi Jinping in Bali, he will press Washington’s commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan strait.
A report by Guardian had quoted one senior White House official as saying that Biden will lay out US priorities on China’s “provocative” military actions near Taiwan, with the main goal of the summit being to “reduce misunderstanding and misperceptions and put in place steps that we believe will establish the rules of the road.”
According to the official, increased cooperation would not necessarily result in substantive progress on “thornier issues” such as Taiwan. The goal is to “find ways to communicate” in those more difficult areas, “because the only thing worse than having contentious conversations is not having them at all.”
Red Lines
Biden had earlier said he hoped to establish “guardrails” for relations between the world’s two largest economies as they compete for international primacy.
The meeting between the US and China on the sidelines of the G20 summit is the first between the two since Biden took office. Xi arrived in Bali on Monday afternoon, only his second overseas trip since the pandemic, following a September trip to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The rivalry between the world’s two largest economies has heightened dramatically as Beijing has grown more powerful and assertive in its desire to replace the US-led order that has prevailed since World War II.
Biden has said the meeting should establish each country’s “red lines”, and the overarching goal will be setting “guardrails” and “clear rules of the road”, a senior White House official told reporters hours before the summit.
North Korea
A senior White House official told reporters hours before the summit that Biden has said the meeting should establish each country’s “red lines,” and that the overarching goal will be to set “guardrails” and “clear rules of the road.”
“We do all of this to prevent competition from devolving into conflict.” Biden is expected to press China to rein in ally North Korea after a record-breaking string of missile tests raised fears that Pyongyang will conduct its seventh nuclear test soon, AFP reported.
Xi and Biden have spoken via videoconference five times since the US president took office, but the Chinese president’s most recent in-person meeting with Trump occurred in 2019.
The Russia-Ukraine Factor
The G20 summit begins on Tuesday, with food and fuel prices soaring globally, Ukraine embroiled in conflict, and the looming threat of nuclear war. One notable absence from the table will be Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin’s nine-month invasion of Ukraine has made the trip to Bali logistically and politically difficult, so he has instead sent veteran foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Meanwhile, Rising energy and food prices have impacted both rich and poor G20 members – and both have suffered. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated on Monday that ending the conflict is “a moral imperative and the single best thing we can do for the global economy.”
When the current agreement expires on November 19, Russia will be under pressure to extend a deal that allows Ukrainian grain and fertiliser shipments through the Black Sea.
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