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Joe Biden and Xi Jinping virtual summit set for Monday, White House announces
- ‘The two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition between the United States and the [People’s Republic of China],’ press secretary says
- New points of tension have emerged since the two leaders last spoke, including the announcement of military alliance between US, Britain and Australia
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US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping plan to hold a much-anticipated virtual summit on Monday evening Washington time, the White House announced on Friday.
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“Following their September 9 phone call, the two leaders will discuss ways to responsibly manage the competition between the United States and the [People’s Republic of China], as well as ways to work together where our interests align,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “Throughout, President Biden will make clear US intentions and priorities and be clear and candid about our concerns with the PRC.”
Leader-to-leader engagement was a critical component of the “intense diplomacy” that Washington’s “intense competition” with Beijing required, Psaki said later on Friday in a briefing.
But she quashed hopes of any concrete results from the impending summit, stressing instead that the engagement was about “setting the terms, in our view, of an effective competition where we’re in a position to defend our values”.
“I wouldn’t set the expectation … that this is intended to have major deliverables or outcomes,” Psaki said.
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