WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (dpa-AFX) – US President Joe Biden hopes that relations with China will improve in the future. Shortly before a meeting with China’s head of state and party leader Xi Jinping, Biden said it would be a success for him if both countries could reach a “normal course of exchange with each other”. It is a goal to be able to “pick up the phone and talk to each other,” Biden said on Tuesday at the White House in Washington before he left for the meeting in California.
Wednesday’s meeting is planned in the San Francisco area and will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Biden and Xi have not seen each other in person since the G20 summit a year ago in Bali, Indonesia.
Relations between the world’s two largest economies have long been very tense. A trade conflict, espionage allegations, tensions over Taiwan and China’s stance in the Ukraine war had brought the relationship to a low point. In recent months, however, both sides have tried to revive communication with each other./cfa/DP/he