Reuters: US And China Agree On Biden-Xi Meeting

• 2.11.2023, 8:32

Time and place have been set.

The teams of US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have reached an agreement on a meeting between the two leaders. It will take place in San Francisco in November.

The talks will take place as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which runs from 11 to 17 November. A senior White House official said on Wednesday 1 November that "important details" still need to be agreed before Xi Jinping and Biden meet, Reuters reports.

"There is an agreement to meet in San Francisco in November. We are still working out the critical details needed to finalise those plans," the US official said.

Journalists recall that the American president, his national security adviser Jake Sullivan and the country's secretary of state Anthony Blinken had earlier discussed the prospects of a summit between Biden and Xi Jinping in talks with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi at the White House and the State Department.

Also the day before, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre told a press briefing that the two leaders planned to have a "constructive conversation" on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco. As previously reported, US officials believe the meeting is necessary to help "cool" relations, which have become more difficult in recent years due to rising tensions over Taiwan and China's military build-up in the South China Sea.

Biden and Xi last met in 2022 on the sidelines of the G20 summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.