Xi to meet Japan PM on Thursday
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will hold talks with President Xi Jinping on Thursday at an Apec gathering in Bangkok, Tokyo's top government spokesman said on Monday. "Prime Minister Kishida is scheduled to hold a Japan-China summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 17th, on the occasion of the Apec summit," Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. Both leaders are attending the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, where Xi is expected to meet US President Joe Biden on Monday afternoon. US officials said Biden wants his meeting with Xi to repair lines of communication and help establish "guardrails" to keep the superpowers from conflict. "We are in competition. President Biden embraces that but he wants to make sure that that competition is bounded, that we build guardrails, that we have clear rules of the road and that we do all of that to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict," a senior White House official said. There have been five phone and video exchanges with Xi since Biden took office at the start of 2021, but Monday's talks will be their first in person since 2017, when Biden was vice president to Barack Obama.  The last time Xi met a US leader was Donald Trump in 2019.  Meanwhile, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would meet Xi on Tuesday. "Australia will put forward our own position. I look forward to having a constructive discussion with President Xi," Albanese told media after arriving in Bali. (Reuters/AFP)______________________________
Last updated: 2022-11-14 HKT 15:55 