Biden-Xi meeting: US hopes for progress on military communications

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Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told US television channel CNN on Sunday that communication between the two countries’ militaries was crucial for the responsible management of relations. “The Chinese have effectively severed these communications links,” he lamented. Biden wants to restore them. And he sees the upcoming meeting with Xi as an opportunity to try to make progress here.

“The US and China are competing with each other,” Sullivan pointed out. The goal is to design and manage this competition so that it does not result in conflict. Biden also wants to look for areas where the two countries could work together if it is in the interests of both parties.

Biden and Xi will meet in California on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. The two have not seen each other in person since the G20 summit a year ago in Bali, Indonesia. Relations between the world’s two largest economies have long been very tense. Chinese support for the Russian war in Ukraine, threats against Taiwan and the ongoing trade conflict between the two countries, among other things, are causing disputes.

The US government has complained several times in recent months that the usual direct channels of communication between the two countries’ armed forces were not working and that this could potentially lead to dangerous misunderstandings and miscalculations. Beijing had previously rejected requests for direct talks at defense minister level, among other things.

In preparation for the meeting between Biden and Xi, both countries recently tried to achieve rapprochement at various levels, including through various meetings of high-ranking American and Chinese government members. At the end of October, the two parties also came closer on a military level at the Xiangshan Forum. After months of radio silence, a US delegation traveled to Beijing for the security dialogue, which is essentially a Chinese edition of the Munich Security Conference for the Asia-Pacific region. China’s second-highest military commander appeared open to talking to the US side.

(SDA)

Source: Blick