US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday held their first face-to-face meeting here with both leaders agreeing on the need to manage their differences and prevent a conflict, amid Beijing’s coercive military posturing against Taiwan and in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.
The high-profile meeting between Biden and Xi that lasted nearly three hours took place on the margins of the G20 summit here in this Indonesian city. Both leaders, without their masks, shook hands and greeted each other with smiles, standing in front of a row of US and Chinese flags.
This is their first in-person meeting after Biden became president in 2021. But they have talked over phone to keep the bilateral ties from derailing.
In his opening remarks, Biden said that he was committed to keeping the lines of communication open with Xi.
Dialogue between the two countries was suspended in August, when Beijing cancelled dialogue across a number of areas in retaliation for US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. After Pelosi’s visit, China held a series of provocative live military exercises around Taiwan to make its concerns clear.
Both sides have expressed fears of the potential consequences of a misunderstanding.
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