Biden, Xi agree to curb fentanyl, restore military communications during APEC summit

Nov. 14 (UPI) — President Joe Biden met with Chinese language President Xi Jinping for greater than 4 hours Wednesday in a high-stakes summit south of San Francisco, the place the 2 leaders agreed to curb fentanyl, restore military-to-military direct contacts and discover the dangers of synthetic intelligence.

Biden and Xi spent a lot of the day at California’s palatial Filoli mansion in Woodside, the place the president described their talks as “constructive and productive.”

Promoting

“I’ve simply concluded a day of conferences with President Xi, and I imagine they have been a number of the most constructive and productive discussions we have had,” Biden wrote in a post on X, previously Twitter, together with a photograph of Biden, Xi and prime administration officers.

“We constructed on groundwork laid over the previous a number of months of diplomacy between our nations and made vital progress,” the president added.

Biden held a press convention after the summit and introduced “three accomplishments,” together with “restarting cooperation” to cut back the quantity of fentanyl shipped instantly from China to the USA, which initially began in 2019.

“So, at this time with this new understanding, we’re taking motion to considerably cut back the movement of precursor chemical substances and tablet presses from China to the Western Hemisphere. It will save lives and I admire President Xi’s dedication,” Biden instructed reporters Wednesday night time.

“Secondly, we’re resuming military-to-military direct contacts,” the president introduced. “Important miscalculations on both facet could cause actual hassle with a rustic like China or every other main nation.”

“Thirdly, we’re going to get our specialists collectively to debate threat and questions of safety related to synthetic intelligence,” Biden introduced. “These are tangible steps in the proper path.”

Through the summit, Biden and Xi mirrored on their lengthy relationship and their first assembly 12 years in the past, once they have been each vice presidents. Whereas the 2 nations have not at all times agreed, Biden lauded Wednesday’s assembly as “candid, easy and helpful.”

“I worth our dialog as a result of I believe it is paramount that you simply and I perceive one another clearly, chief to chief, with no misconceptions or miscommunication,” Biden stated.

For his half, Xi stated the China-U.S. relationship is “crucial bilateral relationship on this planet” and needs to be nurtured in a approach that advantages everybody.

Each leaders agreed that battle shouldn’t be an choice for any interactions between the 2 nations.

“For 2 massive nations like China and the USA, turning their again on one another shouldn’t be an choice. It’s unrealistic for one facet to rework the opposite. Battle and confrontation has insufferable consequence for either side,” Xi stated, talking by way of a translator.

Whereas Biden and Xi labored to beat miscommunications between Washington and Beijing, they mentioned the continuing wars in Europe and the Center East, in addition to the “most delicate difficulty” of Taiwan, in accordance with a spokesperson for China’s Overseas Ministry who attended Wednesday’s summit.

“President Xi identified that the Taiwan query stays crucial and most delicate difficulty in China-U.S. relations,” Hua Chunying, assistant minister of international affairs, wrote in a post on X.

After Wednesday’s summit, Biden addressed Taiwan with reporters, saying he instructed Xi “we preserve an settlement that there’s a one-China coverage and that I am not going to vary that.”

Biden additionally stated he and President Xi mentioned Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election in January, and made clear to Xi that he didn’t anticipate any election interference.

Biden known as his relationship with Xi “belief and confirm” including that we’re in “a aggressive relationship.”

“I do know the person,” Biden stated. “We’ve disagreements, however he has been straight.”

The assembly, which was billed because the U.S.-PRC Leaders Summit and was not an official a part of Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC), was the 2 leaders’ first in a yr amid rising tensions and distrust between China and the USA over Taiwan, commerce, the South China Sea and drug trafficking.

In keeping with the White Home, Biden wished to give attention to three issues throughout his sideline summit with Xi.

“One, not solely enhance and improve American funding within the area, however the area’s funding in the USA,” White Home Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated Tuesday, aboard Air Pressure One, which was en path to San Francisco.

“Quantity two, lifting up and looking out in the direction of a imaginative and prescient for higher worldwide employee requirements, cleaner environments, secure environments, collective bargaining, an opportunity for worldwide staff to have the ability to compete on a degree taking part in discipline,” Jean-Pierre added.

“And quantity three, constructing a extra inclusive economic system throughout the area.”

The 2 leaders final met one yr in the past on the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Wednesday’s assembly additionally marked Xi’s first go to to the USA since 2017.

Whereas the assembly between Xi and Biden was not a part of the summit, it was seen as very important for each leaders amid a backdrop of world conflicts together with the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“Either side have to keep away from blowing one another up,” former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Rick Waters, the inaugural coordinator of the State Division’s China Home, stated concerning the threat of battle between the 2 nations. “That is the kind of sign you want from a gathering like this.”

Final month, Biden met with Chinese language Overseas Minister Wang Yi in what many imagine was a precursor to Wednesday’s summit with Xi.

In keeping with the White Home, Biden emphasised the “have to handle competitors within the relationship responsibly and preserve open strains of communication.”

“He underscored that the USA and China should work collectively to handle international challenges,” the administration stated final month.

Throughout a current go to to Washington, D.C., Wang additionally held a two-day assembly with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan to hash out worldwide points and state their positions.

On Tuesday, Blinken opened APEC — a gaggle of 21 nations that encompass the Pacific Ocean — and its summit in San Francisco the place he welcomed leaders to the USA.

“Our engagement with APEC underscores the USA’ enduring dedication to the imaginative and prescient that all of us agreed in Malaysia in 2020: an open, dynamic, resilient, and peaceable Asia-Pacific neighborhood, one which enhances the prosperity of its folks and future generations.”