President Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping will meet on the sidelines of a summit of Pacific Rim nations Saturday in Lima, Peru, the White House announced Wednesday, likely one of the last meetings Mr. Biden will have with another top world leader before giving way to President-elect Donald Trump in January.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi will be attending the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the Peruvian capital. It will be their first in-person conversation since conferring at the November 2023 APEC gathering that Mr. Biden hosted in San Francisco. Officials said that meeting helped to restart direct communications between Washington and Beijing after a long period of intense bilateral strains, highlighted by the U.S. downing of a Chinese surveillance balloon in early 2023.
A White House official briefing reporters Wednesday declined to detail what the two leaders would discuss or whether Mr. Trump’s looming impact on U.S.-China relations would be a topic of conversation. It would be the third personal meeting between the two leaders since Mr. Biden took office in 2021.
“We expect the president will use the opportunity to take stock of efforts to responsibly manage competition over the last four years, how the two countries have advanced areas of shared interest, even amidst deep differences and intense competition,” the official said.
The next administration is “going to need to find ways to manage that tough, complicated relationship,” the official said, according to The Associated Press.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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