US President Joe Biden has promised there will be no “new Cold War” with China after a conciliatory meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
He also said that he did not believe that China would attack Taiwan.
It was the first personal meeting between the two superpower leaders after Mr. Biden took office.
The pair also discussed North Korea and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in talks in Bali, a day before the G20 summit on the Indonesian island.
Both said they oppose the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Mr Xi, who has been urged to hold talks with Vladimir Putin, reiterated China’s calls for peace and said there was “no easy solution to a complex problem”.
“It’s hard to say that I believe China can control North Korea,” Mr. Biden said at his press conference. But he also told Mr Xi that China had a “responsibility” to prevent Pyongyang from conducting another nuclear weapons test.
Taiwan was the focus of Mr Xi’s three-hour meeting at a luxury hotel shortly after his arrival.
Claimed by Beijing, the sovereign island counts the United States as an ally, and has long been a thorny issue in U.S.-China relations.
Tensions escalated in August when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. China responded with large-scale military exercises around the island, raising fears of a possible confrontation between the US and China.
In a readout to Chinese state media on Monday, Mr. Xi stressed that Taiwan “is at the center of China’s core interests… and is the first red line in US-China relations that must not be crossed.” can”.
In recent weeks, U.S. officials have warned that China may escalate plans to invade Taiwan.
On Monday, reporters asked Mr. Biden if he believed that to be true, and whether he believed a new Cold War was beginning.
“I absolutely believe that there is no need for a new Cold War. I have met with Xi Jinping many times and we have been completely frank and clear with each other. I don’t think that from China There is an immediate attempt to attack Taiwan,” he said.
“I made it clear that we want to see the cross-strait issues resolved peacefully and so it should never come to that. And I’m sure he understood what I was saying, I understood. That’s what he’s saying.”
