Lengthy discussions between Biden and Xi in their first meeting in a year News

He met the American President joe biden And its Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping In california put in For the first time in a year in an attempt to stabilize the tense relations between the two countries.

The meeting between the two presidents lasted for four hours in a luxurious area south of San Francisco, and they greeted each other with a smile and shook hands.

Prior to the meeting, several meetings were held between high-level members of the governments of the two countries.

The White House said on Wednesday via the X platform that Presidents Biden and Xi “had frank and constructive discussions on a range of bilateral and global issues and exchanged views on areas of disagreement.”

Biden also said – in a post on the X platform – “I value the dialogue I had today with President Xi… Today we made real progress.”

A senior US official told reporters that Xi told Biden during their meeting that… Taiwan It is the largest and most dangerous issue in US-China relations.

The official quoted Xi as saying that China prefers a peaceful reunification with the island of Taiwan, which it claims belongs to it, but continues to talk about the circumstances in which force can be used.

The official also said that the two sides also discussed the next steps in the Middle East, and that Washington made clear to the Chinese president its desire for Beijing to intervene with Iran to avoid steps that might be seen as provocative.

Relations between the United States and China, the world’s two largest economies, have been tense for some time, and the trade war, spying accusations, tensions surrounding the island of Taiwan, and China’s position on the Ukraine war have strained relations between the two countries.