Biden, Xi pledge to resume military-to-military communication, curb fentanyl production

1년 만에 만난 바이든•시진핑 군사대화 재개•펜타닐 단속 합의 Staying in San Francisco. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have met for the first time in a year. They agreed upon restoring military communication and curbing fentanyl but divisions remain over Taiwan. Our foreign affairs correspondent Bae Eun-ji has the key takeaways. Leaders of the U.S. and China met face-to-face for the first time in about a year in San Francisco on Wednesday, and agreed to resume military-to-military communication and take steps to curb the production of fentanyl, a leading cause of drug overdoses in the U.S. After meeting President Xi Jinping for four hours, President Biden announced that the two countries are back to “direct, open and clear communications“, to avoid miscalculations on either side. Their latest agreement comes after Beijing cut off this kind of military communications with Washington last year, after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan. Relations between the two countries escalated further in February when the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over its territory. On the subject of fentanyl, Biden said they’ve agreed to take action to reduce the flow of Chinese-made chemicals that are used to manufacture illicit fentanyl. A senior U.S. official reportedly explained that China will go after specific chemical companies that make fentanyl precursors. According to the White House, during their meeting, Biden also emphasized Washington’s commitment to achieve complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Biden and Xi also made clear that they want to stabilize the relationship between the two countries. “We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict. We also have to manage it responsibly, that competition.“ The Chinese President also said turning their back on each other is not an option for two large countries like the U.S. and China. “It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other. And conflict and confrontation have unbearable consequences for both sides.“ But they remain at odds on the issue of Taiwan. Xi reportedly told Biden that China has no plans for military action against Taiwan in the coming years,.. but did lay out conditions where the use of force could be used. Biden reportedly asked China to respect Taiwan’s electoral process. But at the end of a press conference after the summit, Biden said he had not changed his view that Chinese President Xi Jinping is still a “dictator,“ while claiming that significant progress was made during the summit. “I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he’s the guy who runs a country that is a communist country, based on a form of government totally different than ours, anyway.“ This could spark a backlash from Beijing, which had earlier responded furiously when Biden made a similar comment in June, and could affect the positive energy coming out of the meeting that took months of preparation and detailed planning. Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News. #UnitedStates #China #JoeBiden #XiJinping #Summit #미국 #중국 #조바이든 #시진핑 #회담 #Arirang_News #아리랑뉴스 📣 Facebook : 📣 Twitter : 📣 Homepage : 2023-11-16,18:00 (KST)