Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden Seek to Turn Back the Clock at San Francisco Summit

TIME

President Xi Jinping returns to San Francisco on Tuesday for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, with a bilateral meeting with President Joe Biden set for Wednesday.

Transcript

00:00 On Wednesday, as you have heard, President Biden and President Xi will meet in the Bay Area

00:05 for a summit. We anticipate that the leaders will discuss some of the most fundamental elements of

00:10 the US-PRC bilateral relationship, including the continued importance of strengthening open lines

00:16 of communication and managing competition responsibly so that it does not veer into

00:21 conflict. The way we achieve that is through intense diplomacy. That's how we clear up

00:27 misperceptions and avoid surprises. That's how we work together where and when our interests overlap

00:33 and deliver on key priorities for the American people. I'm not going to preview what exactly

00:37 President Biden will say to President Xi because I think he should have the opportunity to speak

00:40 to him directly in person without me proclaiming it from the podium. I will say that the president,

00:45 broadly speaking, is going to set out a vision for peace and stability and the maintenance of

00:53 peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He will do that in his meeting with President Xi.

00:57 But in terms of the specifics of that conversation, I will leave that to the president to do

01:01 person-to-person, face-to-face. From our perspective, the PRC should share the interest

01:06 of every responsible country that de-escalation rather than escalation in the broader Middle

01:11 East should be the order of the day. President Biden will make the point to President Xi

01:14 that Iran acting in an escalatory, destabilizing way that undermines stability across the broader

01:22 Middle East is not in the interests of the PRC or of any other responsible country.

01:28 The PRC, of course, has a relationship with Iran and it's capable, if it chooses to,

01:33 of making those points directly to the Iranian government. The United States has been ready for

01:37 that entire period to sustain military-to-military communications because we think it's the only

01:43 responsible thing to do. Having our two militaries in communication is the way you reduce mistake,

01:48 you avoid escalation, you manage competition so it doesn't veer into conflict. That, to us,

01:53 is an absolutely straightforward factor. And no matter what else is happening in the relationship,

01:58 those military-to-military links should remain intact. That's our position going into San

02:03 Francisco. We believe that the PRC has been constructive in the dialogue we've been having

02:08 with them on this issue. We will see what happens in San Francisco and the president will be able

02:13 to report after the meeting whether, in fact, we've made progress on restoring military-to-military

02:17 links. Nothing stands still in the world, as we've just seen from the October 7th crisis.

02:22 And there will be, inevitably, things that arise that are unanticipated. There will be turbulence,

02:29 as there always is. And the question is, can we create the lines of communication and the broad

02:36 parameters in the relationship so that, through whatever comes, we can manage competition

02:42 responsibly so it doesn't veer into conflict? That's what the president has set out to achieve

02:47 in this summit with President Xi. And so he sees this not just as a one-off meeting, but as an

02:53 important moment to be able to establish the kind of basis upon which we can proceed out into the

02:58 future. The most important thing is that this is a complex relationship, a competitive relationship,

03:05 that could easily veer into conflict or confrontation if it's not well managed.

03:12 And so managing the relationship in an effective way is the single most important responsibility

03:18 of the president and everyone who works for him on this file. And then, beyond that,

03:23 the U.S. and China have to be able to speak directly to one another on all of the critical

03:29 issues that face our two countries, including issues in moments of crisis, like the Russia-Ukraine

03:36 crisis. And President Biden has had a number of candid conversations with President Xi

03:41 about the question of military support to the Russian Federation in the conduct of its war in

03:47 Ukraine.

Category

Transcript

Recommended