Bloomberg reports… Expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear weapons, Ukraine war, Taiwan, etc.
A phone call between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping is underway, Bloomberg News reported on the 16th (local time), citing a source.
A phone call could take place as early as July, the source said, but a face-to-face meeting between the leaders would wait until after the party congress in the second half of the year, when it will decide whether or not Xi will be in office for a third term.
Earlier, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese Communist Party Politburo Yang Jiechi met in Luxembourg on the 13th, raising speculation that the two leaders may have coordinated their phone calls.
This is because there has been a case in which President Biden and President Xi speak on the phone after the two have met in the past.
President Biden, who took office in January last year, has had four video or phone calls with Xi so far, but no face-to-face meetings yet.
President Xi has suspended face-to-face diplomacy between leaders for more than two years, except during the Beijing Olympics in February, following the coronavirus pandemic.
If the two leaders hold a phone call, the issue of North Korea, which is said to be imminent in an additional nuclear test, is also expected to be addressed as a major issue.
The United States is calling for China to take an active role in encouraging North Korea to return to dialogue on denuclearization, but China insists that the United States take preemptive measures, such as easing sanctions.
In response to North Korea’s ballistic missile provocation on the 26th of last month, the United States pushed for the adoption of additional sanctions resolutions by the UN Security Council, but it was canceled due to opposition from China and Russia.
In addition, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Taiwan issue, which has emerged as a key conflict between the US and China, are expected to be discussed.
/yunhap news
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