Numerous sources informed on the two leaders' 90-minute phone discussion last week claim that Chinese President Xi Jinping did not accept US President Joe Biden's offer.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden refuted a media report that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had turned down Biden's invitation for a face-to-face meeting last week. According to many people informed on the 90-minute discussion between the two leaders last week, Xi Jinping did not accept Joe Biden's offer.
Biden denies report Xi turned down offer
When reporters asked if he was unhappy that Xi Jinping refused to meet with him, Biden responded, "It's not true." According to NDTV, Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security advisor, said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that "the call was not an accurate portrayal. Period."
The report was accurate, a person who was among those informed on the call claimed. When contacted for comment, China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond.
Biden is said to have floated the summit as one of many options for a follow-up meeting with Xi, and he did not expect an immediate response. A US person stated that while Xi was not interested in holding a meeting, the White House felt it was partially due to COVID-19 concerns.
The G20 summit in Italy in October has been mentioned as a potential location for a face-to-face meeting, although Xi has not left China since the pandemic broke out early last year. The conversation between Biden and Xi was their first in seven months, and they emphasized the need to avoid confrontation between the world's two greatest economies.
Before the meeting, a US official briefing described it as a test of whether direct top-level contact might break the impasse in relations, which are at their lowest point in decades. The White House stated later that it planned to keep lines of communication open, but no more engagements have been announced.
According to sources involved with the call who requested anonymity to discuss it, Biden recommended the two leaders meet in the coming months. Xi hasn't left China in over 600 days, the longest period of any G20 leader.
Xi Jinping has not left China
Instead, he's been making virtual appearances at gatherings like the BRICS leaders' conference, as per Bloomberg. He is also not likely to visit the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, despite the fact that Chinese presidents seldom attend such events.
At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian avoided addressing questions about whether Xi was interested in seeing Biden soon. He reiterated prior Chinese remarks regarding the necessity of frequent communication between the two parties.
President Biden will virtually assemble some of the world's most powerful leaders on Friday, pushing them to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a crucial United Nations conference in November.
Biden will also call on other nations to join a worldwide target to reduce methane, the major component of natural gas and exceptionally potent greenhouse gas, according to a White House official who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity on a background call.
European and US climate negotiators who were not allowed to disclose specifics of the proposal publicly said countries who sign on to the "global methane pledge" hammered up by the US and Europe would promise to work together to cut global methane emissions by at least 30% by 2030.
The White House did not provide a list of attendees, but the Big Economies Forum typically attracts a mix of affluent European countries and major emerging economies. Although it is unclear if officials from China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse emissions, would attend the second summit on Friday, the country's president, Xi Jinping, did attend the first in April, as per The New York Times.
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