United States President Joe Biden will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week in San Francisco for the first time in a year.
The two leaders are expected to announce the resumption of military-to-military communications between the two countries when they meet on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco on November 15.
Xi will be visiting the United States from November 14-17 where he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco and is scheduled to meet with Biden on the sidelines, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that the U.S. aims for “specific outcomes” from the meeting, although he refrained from detailing them explicitly. However, he did offer some hints.
“We believe that there are areas where our interests overlap, like our efforts to combat the illicit fentanyl trade,” Sullivan said.
“There are also areas where we can more effectively manage competition — for example, by re-establishing military-to-military communications. And there are, of course, critical global issues that the two leaders will need to discuss, including Russia’s war against Ukraine and the evolving crisis in the Middle East.”
Beijing severed military-to-military communications with Washington following the then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August. Tensions escalated further when the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon flying over North America in February this year.
Biden and Xi to discuss communication and competition
The White House said that President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss strengthening communication and managing competition when they meet on the sidelines of the APEC summit which is dedicated to promoting trade, investment and economic development among nations around the Pacific Ocean.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a forum of 21 Asia-Pacific economies that are home to more than 2.9 billion people and make up over 60% of global GDP. But the forum has increasingly become a stage for strategic competition between the U.S. and China. In recent months, both sides have taken unfriendly measures, restricting trade and investment. China tightened rare-earth export curbs, while the U.S. imposed limits on investments in Chinese technology and severed China’s access to AI chips.
Both Biden and Xi will be looking to bring a greater measure of stability to the relationship that has been strained by differences over export controls, tensions over Taiwan, the wars in the Middle East and Europe.
“The United States has no desire to decouple from China. A full separation of our economies would be economically disastrous for both our countries, and for the world,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng when they met last week.
Deal expected on keeping AI out of control systems for nuclear weapons
Wednesday’s meeting between the U.S. and Chinese Presidents is expected to include the signing of an agreement that restricts the application of artificial intelligence in nuclear weapon control systems, according to the South China Morning Post. The discussions will also address the wider proliferation of AI within military technologies, reflecting another crucial aspect on the agenda for the two nations, the report said.
Biden and Xi are expected to sign a deal to restrict the application of AI in autonomous weaponry, including drones, and in the control and deployment systems for nuclear warheads.
China and the U.S. signed an agreement in February at the Hague, supporting the responsible use of AI in military contexts. Additionally, during a summit held at Bletchley Park in the UK earlier in November, both nations, among others, agreed to collaborate in managing the potential threats posed by this technology.