Wahington: President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping will hold their much-anticipated virtual summit on Monday evening as the two sides look to dial back tensions after a rough start to the US-China relationship since Biden took office earlier this year.
White House officials said that no major announcements are expected to come from the meeting.
``The two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition between the United States and the PRC, as well as ways to work together where our interests align," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement announcing the timing of the summit, referring to the People's Republic of China. ``Throughout, President Biden will make clear US intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns."
The meeting will be the third engagement between the two leaders since February. It comes after the US and China this week pledged at UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and senior Chinese foreign policy adviser Yang Jiechi came to an agreement on holding the Biden-Xi virtual summit by year's end when they met last month for talks in Zurich but the two sides had not settled on a date.
The virtual meeting was proposed after Biden, who spent a substantial amount of time with Xi when the two were vice presidents, mentioned during a September phone call with the Chinese leader that he would like to be able to see Xi again, according to the White House.
Xi has not left China during the coronavirus pandemic. White House officials proposed a virtual summit as the best available substitute for the two leaders to have a substantive conversation on a number of issues that have put strains on the US-China relationship.
``We hope the US will work together with China to jointly strive to make the leaders' summit a success and bring China-US ties back to the right track of sound and stable development,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday.
