Biden – Xi Summit: Reducing Tensions and Continuing Communication Between Two Superpowers

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have pledged to de-escalate tensions at a high-stakes summit in California, the BBC reported.

The talks at a historic estate near San Francisco on Wednesday marked the first time the rival leaders had met in person in over a year.

Relations soured in February when a Chinese spy balloon was shot down in US airspace. The relationship was also damaged by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last year, which led China to cut off communication between the two countries' militaries.

The superpowers are also at odds over a range of other issues including fentanyl production, military activities in the South China Sea, the Israel-Hamas war, Taiwan, the war in Ukraine, and alleged election interference.

Biden opened the meeting by saying that “competition” between the two nations “need not turn into conflict”.

“I appreciate our conversation because I think it's the most important thing that you and I have to do is to be able to communicate clearly, leader to leader, without any mistakes or miscommunication,” he said.

Xi then said that “turning their back on each other is not an option”.

“The planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to develop and prosper, and the success of one country is an opportunity for the other,” he said.

“Confrontation has unbearable consequences for both sides,” Xi added. While the meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was long-awaited, officials from both sides had downplayed expectations of any major breakthroughs.

Xi and Biden met at Filoli Estate, a country house outside San Francisco, away from the main APEC meeting.

The two leaders last met in person at a summit in Bali exactly one year and one day ago.