Biden will meet Xi ‘at some point,’ says Sullivan

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping would meet “at some point” as tensions between the two countries continue to mount.

During an appearance on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” host Fareed Zakaria asked Sullivan if he agreed with recent comments by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who told The Economist that US-China relations were “in the classic pre-World War I situation”. where neither side “knows they have no political leeway to make concessions on the matter.

“I sat in the room with President Biden when he met President Xi in Bali last year, and that was not my experience,” Sullivan told Zakaria, adding that the two world leaders had tried to come to an agreement.

“And the desire of both parties to put a floor under the relationship, to manage the competition responsibly, to make sure the competition doesn’t become a conflict,” Sullivan added. “And there are a number of different elements to that. But one of the main ones is that as we have intense competition, we also have intense diplomacy.

Sullivan also told Zakaria he had just met with his Chinese counterpart, Foreign Affairs Committee Office Director Wang Yi, where the two diplomats discussed “all strategic issues” in their ongoing relationship, adding that He hopes to see talks between the two countries continue in the coming months.

“And then, at some point, we will see President Biden and President Xi come together again. So, as far as I am concerned, there is nothing incompatible with, on the one hand, vigorous competition in important areas of the economy and technology, and on the other hand, ensuring that this competition does not degenerate into conflict or confrontation. This is the firm conviction of President Biden. This is how he will manage this relationship responsibly,” Sullivan said. “And we think there’s nothing inevitable about some kind of conflict or cold war between the United States and China.”

Tensions between the United States and China have escalated over the years. Earlier this year, US officials raised concerns that China could provide lethal aid to Russia during its ongoing war with Ukraine.

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