NUSA DUA, Indonesia: US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed in talks Monday (Nov 14) that nuclear weapons should never be used, including in Ukraine, the White House said.
“President Biden and President Xi reiterated their agreement 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 face-to-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”.
Biden raised objections to China’s “coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan,” adding that they “undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region”, the White House said after three hours of talks aimed at avoiding conflict between the rival superpowers.
And he told Xi the world should encourage North Korea to act “responsibly”, after a record-breaking series of missile launches by Pyongyang and growing fears of a new nuclear test.
Biden brought up other difficult topics during the meeting, according to the White House readout, including Beijing’s “non-market economic practices”, and practices in “Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly”.
Biden said beforehand he was committed to keeping lines of communication open on a personal and government level.
“As the leaders of our two nations, we share responsibility, in my view, to show that China and the United States can manage our differences, prevent competition from turning into conflict, and to find ways to work together on urgent global issues that require our mutual cooperation,” Biden said in remarks delivered in front of reporters.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China to follow up on the discussions, the White House said.
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