The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed today that President Xi Jinping will travel to the United States to meet with his counterpart in that country, Joe Biden, and to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC). “The presidents will discuss in-depth strategic issues of fundamental importance in shaping the relationship between China and the United States and important issues relating to world peace and development,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
Aside from the face-to-face meeting between the two leaders, the Chinese Foreign Ministry highlighted that Xi’s attendance demonstrates the “great importance” that the country attaches to Asia-Pacific cooperation. “With increasing instability and uncertainty in the global economy, there is broad expectation that the Asia-Pacific will continue to be an economic engine leading global growth,” he said.
Xi, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, “will deliver an important speech to explain in depth China’s main proposals to deepen Asia-Pacific cooperation and channel regional and global growth.” “We hope that all parties will remember what brought Asia-Pacific countries and regions together initially, focus on the urgent needs of the region, deepen solidarity and cooperation (…) and work to achieve positive results at the meeting,” the foreign ministry said.
The meeting between Xi and Biden will be the first since a year ago, when both leaders met in Bali (Indonesia) for three hours on the sidelines of the annual G20 summit. The meeting had already been advanced by the White House, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry had avoided confirming it in recent days.
The meeting between the leaders of both powers is one more step in the attempted thaw of recent months between Beijing and Washington after a year in which bilateral relations reached one of their lowest points due to issues such as the trade war and US sanctions. .US to Chinese companies or the Taiwan question.
Xi’s trip to the United States follows the latest visits to China by American officials: so far this year, the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce, the aforementioned Yellen and Gina Raimondo have passed through Beijing. , and the special envoy for Climate Change, John Kerry.
For his part, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the North American country at the end of October and held a meeting with Biden, which marked the highest-ranking meeting that the president had with a Chinese official in the last year. In early October, Xi stated that the relationship between Washington and Beijing “will determine the destiny of humanity,” after meeting with the first delegation of US senators to visit China in four years.
