Joe Biden last met Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali in 2022. The ties between India and China have been strained since US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which China claims is part of its territory.

Washington: US President Joe Biden would meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC Leadership Summit in San Francisco later this month, the White House has confirmed. “The president is looking forward to it. And that, I think should answer your question,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Tuesday at her daily news conference when asked about reports of a Biden-Xi meeting in San Francisco.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also been invited for the APEC Leadership summit by President Biden. India is most likely to be represented by a Cabinet-level minister.

“We’ve been talking about it. The President said he’s looking forward to meeting — to meeting with President Xi. And — and so, not going to get into details about this meeting that’s going to happen in November. It’s going to be in San Francisco. It’s going to be a constructive meeting,” Jean-Pierre said.

“Look, what I’m saying is that we’re aiming to have a constructive conversation, meeting between the leaders in San Francisco in November. So that’s what I’m saying. That’s what’s going to happen in November. We’re going to have constructive conversation in San Francisco,” she said.

She said that the policy of the Biden Administration as to how to move forward with China hasn’t changed, adding that the US has been clear with its policy with respect to China and called it “intense competition.” She said that Biden will have a “tough but important” conversation with Xi Jinping. She spoke about the earlier meetings held between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart.

“This is intense competition, right, that we have said that we want to move forward with China. We understand that and intense competition means intense diplomacy. That’s what you’re going to see. That’s what the president is going to be doing and having a tough conversation, but important conversation,” she said.

“I’m not going to get into any kind of, you know, decisions made on this. This is going to be about the diplomatic conversations. We’ve seen about three secretaries go to China and have these diplomatic conversations. We saw Secretary Blinken, we saw National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan having important conversations, diplomatic conversations with their counterparts in China. This is an important relationship. Again, this is about competition. That’s what we want to see with China,” Jean-Pierre said, adding that “this is going to be an important diplomatic conversation that they are going to have”.

The meeting comes on the heels of a meeting Biden held with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Washington last week. The White House said Biden “emphasised that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication,” and he “underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.”

Joe Biden last met Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali in 2022. The ties between India and China have been strained since US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, which China claims is part of its territory.

The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on USD 50 billion worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

(With inputs from agencies)