Biden-Xi meet: Chinese President expresses readiness to work with US counterpart to build consensus

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday (local time) expressed his readiness to work with US President Joe Biden to build consensus to move China-US relations forward, adding that both the countries are at critical stages of development and the "global village" of humanity faces multiple challenges.

Xi made these remarks during his highly-anticipated virtual meeting with Biden, where the latter is expected to "raise concerns" over Beijing's actions and "insist the communist regime play by the rules of the road".

During his opening remarks, Xi stressed that a sound and steady China-US relationship is required for advancing the two countries' respective development and for safeguarding a peaceful and stable international environment, including finding effective responses to global challenges such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

China and the US should respect each other, co-exist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation, he said.

Xi also expressed his readiness to work with Biden to build consensus and take active steps to move China-US relations forward in a positive direction. Doing so will advance the interests of the two peoples and meet the expectation of the international community, he said.

In the very beginning of his remark, Chinese Xi said, "Although we can't see each other face to face, this is not bad, either. I feel very happy to see my old friend." Biden nodded and said, "Thank you".

Emphasising that the US and China need to establish some common-sense guardrails, Biden opened the meeting by stressing the need for collaboration "especially on vital global issues like climate change."

"We have a responsibility to the world as well as to our people," Biden said during the meeting.

Biden, seated at the head of the table with top officials around, opened the virtual meeting noting that both have "spent an awful lot of time talking to each other" over the years, and "maybe I should start more formally even though you and I have never been that formal."

Separately, on Twitter Biden said that he is meeting with President Xi to responsibly manage the competition between our countries. "It's about speaking candidly and directly with him and ensuring the competition does not veer into conflict," Biden tweeted.

This is the first meeting between the two leaders since Biden has assumed office. Although both have spoken twice over the phone so far.

(ANI)

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