Biden, Xi ‘agreed’ never to use nuclear weapons

Nusa Dua, Indonesia - US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping

agreed in talks on Monday that nuclear weapons should never be used, including in Ukraine, the White House said.

“President Biden and President Xi reiterated their agree

ment that a nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won and underscored their opposition to the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” it said in a statement.

The pair held their first faceto-face talks since Biden took office on the sidelines of a G20 meeting expected to be dominated by the war in Ukraine. The pair shook hands at the start of the meeting, with Biden

saying the superpowers shared the responsibility to show the world that they can

‘manage our differences, prevent competition from becoming conflict’.

The White House said he had told Xi that Washington would ‘continue to compete vigorously’ with China, but ‘this competition should not veer into conflict’.