WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and China´s Xi Jinping are exploring meeting in person, a senior administration official said after the leaders spent more than two hours Thursday talking through the future of their complicated relationship, AP reported.
Biden conducted the telephone call from the Oval Office, where he was joined by top aides, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The official declined to be identified to talk about the private conversation.
When Biden was vice president, he spent long hours with Xi in the United States and China, an experience he often recalls as he talks about the two countries’ opportunities for conflict and cooperation. However, they have not met in person since Biden became president last year.
Xi has left mainland China only once, to visit Hong Kong, since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
However, he’s been formally invited to Indonesia in November for the next G20 summit of the world’s leading economies, making the conference a potential location for a meeting with Biden.
The latest strain over Taiwan is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi´s potential visit to the island, which has governed itself for decades but China asserts as part of its territory.
Xi emphasized those claims during his call with Biden, according to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
