Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday exchanged views with U.S. President Joe Biden at the latter’s request on China-U.S. relations and issues of common concern, said state news agency Xinhua.“The Ukraine crisis is something we don’t want to see,” Xinhua quoted Xi as saying. “Events once again show that state-to-state relations cannot go to the stage of confrontation, conflict and confrontation are not in the interests of anyone.”
“As permanent members of the UN Security Council and the world’s two largest economies, we must not only lead the development of China-US relations on the right track, but also shoulder our due international responsibilities and make efforts for world peace and tranquillity,” the report paraphrased Xi as saying.Calling the exchange “constructive”, Xinhua said the sides agreed “to follow up in a timely manner, take practical actions, strive for the return of China-US relations to the track of stable development, and make their own efforts to properly resolve the Ukraine crisis”.The Xinhua account added that the US and Nato “should also conduct dialogue with Russia to solve the crux of the Ukraine crisis”.The call between Xi and Biden comes months after their last virtual summit in November and is the first direct meeting between the two since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.In the meantime CNN said Biden and Xi spoke for nearly two hours Friday, according to the White House, with the US setting the stage for a stern warning that Chinese firms would pay a serious price if the Beijing government heeds Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pleas for military and economic aid. The call found the US surmounting one of its deepest-set foreign policy fears – risking an open clash with China while simultaneously facing down Russia – in another extraordinary geopolitical shuffle triggered by the Ukraine war.
It also put Biden in the odd position of seeking the tacit cooperation of the nation seen as America’s most powerful rising foe to suppress its historic Cold War rival of the second half of the 20th century. /Argumentum.al
