White House announces possibility of talks between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping

A telephone conversation between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping may take place in the near future, informed White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to NBC News.

“I expect both leaders to talk in the not so distant future,” he said (quote according to RIA Novosti).

At the same time, he added that at present the conversation has not yet been scheduled. It is also necessary to establish military communication channels between countries to avoid escalation, Sullivan said. “We have repeatedly said that we need to have military communication channels in order to avoid escalation, to avoid surprise, to avoid mistakes, and it is very unfortunate that the Chinese Department of Defense refused to answer calls from the US Secretary of Defense,” he said.

Relations between the countries escalated after the visit of Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in early August 2022. The Chinese Foreign Ministry protested, and the PRC announced military exercises in Taiwan waters. Later, a delegation of US congressmen and Republican Senator Marsha Blackbear visited the island. The PRC said that such steps violate the “one China” principle.

Also on February 4, the United States shot down a balloon that belonged to the PRC and, according to the Pentagon, was collecting “important information” about the location of military installations. After that, Beijing strongly protested and urged to avoid further actions that escalate tensions and harm the interests of the PRC.

Another unidentified object was shot down by the US military on February 10 over Alaska near the Canadian border, and on February 12 over Canada on the orders of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On the night of February 13, an American F-15 shot down an object in the Lake Huron area near the border with Canada. The Pentagon noted that the object flew over military infrastructure and posed a threat due to “potentially available intelligence capabilities.” Biden later said that there was no connection between the balloons shot down over the territory of the United States and Canada and the intelligence programs of any country.