Biden to set ‘guardrails’ in talks with Xi
NUSA DUA, Indonesia: United States President Joe Biden was set to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Indonesia on Monday, hoping to set “guardrails” for relations between the world’s two largest economies as they vie for international primacy. The US-China sit-down on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) summit in the Indonesian resort island of Bali will be the first face-to-face between the pair since Biden took office in January 2021.
Xi arrived on the island on Monday afternoon, on only his second overseas trip since the coronavirus pandemic began in early 2020; he visited Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in September.
Rivalry between the world’s top two economies has intensified sharply as Beijing has become more powerful and more assertive about replacing the
US-led order that has prevailed since World War 2.
Biden has said the meeting should establish each country’s “red lines,” and the overarching goal will be setting “guardrails” and “clear rules of the road,” a senior White House official told reporters hours before the summit.
“We do all of that to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict,” the official said.
Biden is expected to push China to rein in ally North Korea after a record-breaking spate of missile tests raised fears Pyongyang would soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.
Xi and Biden have spoken by videoconference five times since the US leader took office, but the Chinese president’s last in-person US summit was with Donald Trump in 2019.
He arrived buoyed by securing a landmark third term in office, cementing him as the most powerful Chinese leader in generations.
Biden, meanwhile, has been bolstered by his Democratic Party’s better-than-expected showing in the November 8 midterm elections, in which they retained control of the Senate, although he remains vulnerable in domestic politics.
Biden won’t be the only leader meeting Xi, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese set to hold talks on Tuesday that would be the first formal sit-down between leaders of the two countries since 2017.
“There are no preconditions on this discussion. I am looking forward to having constructive dialogue,” he told reporters on arrival in Bali on Monday.
Putin stays away
The G20 summit opens on Tuesday and comes with food and fuel prices spiking worldwide, Ukraine mired in conflict, and the renewed threat of nuclear war casting a menacing pall.
There will be one conspicuous absence around the table: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
His nine-month-old invasion of Ukraine has made the trip to Bali logistically difficult and politically fraught, and Putin has instead chosen to send Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to represent him.
Officially, neither the war in Ukraine nor Putin’s dark threats to use nuclear weapons are on the summit agenda.
But while the ex-KGB man will not be at the summit table, his war is certain to be on the menu.
At a minimum, Biden and his allies would also like to see the G20 make it clear to Putin that nuclear war is unacceptable.
But a clear statement on the issue from the grouping is likely to be blocked by a mixture of Russian opposition and Chinese unwillingness to break ranks with its ally in Moscow or give Washington a win.
The G20 has always been more comfortable discussing finance and economics than security, and Moscow would like it to stay that way.
“We categorically reject the politicization of the G20,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, offering a taste of what leaders might hear from the famously unbending Lavrov.
G20 ministerial meetings leading to the summit have failed to agree on a final joint communique and Indonesian officials said on Monday it remained a “work in progress” and a “main goal” for the summit.
“Honestly, I think the global situation has never been this complex,” Indonesian government minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said on Sunday. “If eventually [the G20] leaders do not produce a communique, that’s that. It’s OK.”