Agreement reached for Biden-Xi talks, but details still being worked out
Washington: President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to meet on the sidelines of next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, according to a US official familiar with the planning.
The two sides worked out an agreement in principle to hold a meeting during the summit as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Friday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, according to the official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The official added that the two sides have still not worked out details on the exact day of the meeting, venue and other logistics.
The White House said in a statement following Friday’s meetings that the two sides were “working toward” a Biden-Xi face-to-face on the sidelines of APEC, a forum of 21 Pacific countries.
Earlier Friday, Biden met with Wang, holding an hour-long talk with the senior Chinese official in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. The meeting, with Blinken and Sullivan present, was the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries as they explore the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly tense relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.
The White House said Biden “emphasized that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication,” and he “underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges.”
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden viewed his meeting with Wang as “a positive development, and a good opportunity to keep the conversation going.”
Biden had been widely expected to talk with Wang, a reciprocal action after Xi met with Blinken in June.
Beijing has yet to confirm if Xi will travel to San Francisco for the annual APEC summit, which runs from Nov 11 to Nov 17.
Wang is in the midst of a three-day visit to Washington, where he’s been meeting with top US officials. He sat down with Blinken on Friday morning for the second time during his trip.
On Thursday, after their initial meeting, the Chinese side said “the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.”
In its readout, the US State Department said the two men addressed “areas of difference” and “areas of cooperation,” while Blinken “reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.”
Wang said before Thursday’s meeting that China's goal was to “push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.”
US officials had said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The US has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the war between Israel and Hamas.
“China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm” in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.”
US officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.
Wang came to Washington at a time when tensions between the two countries remained high, including over US export controls on advanced technology and China’s more assertive actions in the East and South China seas.
On Thursday, the US military released a video of a Chinese fighter jet flying within 10 feet (three meters) of an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident. Earlier this month, the Pentagon released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of US warplanes by Chinese aircraft that occurred in the last two years, part of a trend US military officials call concerning.
The US also has renewed a warning that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a security pact, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Philippine vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea.
Beijing has released its own video of close encounters in the region, including what it described as footage of the USS Ralph Johnson making a sharp turn and crossing in front of the bow of a Chinese navy ship. The US destroyer also was captured sailing between two Chinese ships.
Senior Col. Wu Qian, the spokesman of the Chinese defense ministry, said the videos showed that “the US is the real provocateur, risk taker and spoiler.”
The Pentagon rejected China's characterization of the USS Ralph Johnson’s movements, saying the video includes only “cropped segments of a 90-minute interaction.” The ship “complied with international law” and “operated in a lawful, safe and resolute manner,” the Pentagon said.
During his visit to Washington, Wang was also expected to discuss Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory. Beijing vows to seize it by force if necessary, but Washington, which has a security pact with Taiwan, opposes the use of force.
The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on US soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in Nov 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.
The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50bn worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Biden-Xi meeting would bring much-needed stability to relations between the two countries, said Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center.
“The keyword here is ‘stabilization’ of bilateral ties—not really improvement, but stabilization,” Sun said. “The world needs the US and China to take on a rational path and stabilize their relationship, offering the region and the world more certainty.”
AP
UNGA calls for ‘humanitarian truce’ in Gaza
The UN General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Friday calling for a “humanitarian truce” in Gaza leading to a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, the first United Nations response to the war.
The 193-member world body adopted the resolution by a vote of 120-14 with 45 abstentions after rejecting a Canadian amendment backed by the United States. It would have unequivocally condemned the Oct 7 “terrorist attacks” by Hamas and demanded the immediate release of hostages taken by Hamas, which is not mentioned in the Arab-drafted resolution.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, called the General Assembly “more courageous, more principled” than the divided UN Security Council, which failed in four attempts during the past two weeks to reach agreement on a resolution. Two were vetoed and two failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes required for approval.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called it “a day that will go down in infamy,” saying after the vote: “Israel will not stop the operation until Hamas terror capabilities are destroyed and our hostages are returned. … And the only way to destroy Hamas is root them out of their tunnels and subterranean city of terror.”
Frustrated Arab nations went to the General Assembly, where there are no vetoes—just as Ukraine did after Russia’s Feb 2022 invasion because of Moscow’s Security Council veto power—to press for a UN response. And the United Arab Emirates Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, the Arab representative on the Security Council, expressed delight at the result.
“120 votes in this kind of geopolitical environment is a very, very high signal of the support for international law, for proportionate use of force, and it is a rejection of the status quo that is currently happening on the ground,” she said.
The 14 countries that voted against the resolution include Israel and its closest ally, the United States, five Pacific island nations and four European countries—Austria, Croatia, Czechia and Hungary, all European Union members. Eight EU members voted in favor.
France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere said his country supported the resolution “because nothing could justify the suffering of civilians,” and he urged collective efforts to establish a humanitarian truce.
Mansour said the European votes indicate they can be “very helpful” in pursuing a Security Council resolution “or in maximizing pressure in Israel to stop this war.”
While the surprise Hamas attacks killed some 1,400 Israelis, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The escalating death toll and destruction in Gaza heightened international support for “humanitarian truces” to get desperately needed food, water, medicine and fuel to the 2.3m people in Gaza.
Unlike Security Council resolutions, General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but the UAE’s Nusseibeh told reporters “they carry incredible weight and moral authority.”
She said the 10 elected Security Council members, who serve two-year terms, will take the “moral authority” from the General Assembly and try to break the gridlock on a council resolution.
The votes came part way through a list of 113 speakers at an emergency special session of the General Assembly on Israeli actions in occupied Palestinian territories.
Jordan’s UN Ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud, speaking on behalf of the UN’s 22-nation Arab group, called for action on the resolution because of the urgency of the escalating situation on the ground.
Before the vote, Hmoud urged defeat of the Canadian amendment, saying “Israel is responsible for the atrocities that are being committed now, and that will be committed in the ground invasion of Gaza.”
Canada’s UN Ambassador Robert Rae countered that the resolution appears to forget that the events of Oct 7 happened. The amendment would condemn Hamas, “which is responsible for one of the worst terrorist attacks in history,” he said.
Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram drew loud applause when he said the Arab-drafted resolution deliberately didn’t condemn or mention Israel or name any other party. “If Canada was really equitable,” Akram said, “it would agree either to name everybody—both sides who are guilty of having committed crimes—or it would not name either as we chose.”
The vote on the Canadian amendment was 88-55 with 23 abstentions, but it failed to get a two-thirds majority of those voting for or against—abstentions didn’t count. In the vote on the entire resolution that followed, Canada abstained.
The assembly’s emergency special session, which began Wednesday, continued Friday morning with US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield echoing Israel’s Erdan in calling the resolution “outrageous” for never mentioning Hamas and saying it is “detrimental” to the vision of a two-state solution.
She called it “a perilous moment for Israelis and Palestinians,” stressing that there is no justification for Hamas “terror,” that Palestinians are being used as human shields and that “the lives of innocent Palestinians must be protected.”
Oman, speaking on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, condemned Israel’s “siege” of Gaza, starvation of its population and collective punishment of Palestinians. But it said the Palestinians won’t be deterred from demanding their “legitimate inalienable rights, chief among them the right to self- determination and the right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
In addition to calling for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities,” the resolution adopted Friday demands that all parties immediately comply with their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law requiring protection of civilians and the schools, hospitals and other infrastructure critical for their survival.
The resolution demands that essential supplies be allowed into the Gaza Strip and humanitarian workers have sustained access. And it calls on Israel to rescind its order for Gazans to evacuate the north and move to the south and “firmly rejects any attempts at the forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population.”
The resolution also stresses the need “to urgently establish a mechanism to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population.”
And it “emphasizes the importance of preventing further destabilization and escalation of violence in the region” and calls on all parties to exercise “maximum restraint” and on all those with influence to press them “to work toward this objective.”
AP
Wang Yi visits US to help stabilize ties and perhaps set up a Biden-Xi summit
Washington: China’s top diplomat is meeting high-level US officials, possibly including President Joe Biden, on a highly watched visit to Washington that could help stabilize the US-China ties by facilitating a summit between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, met Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday afternoon, shortly after he landed for the three-day visit and quickly raised hopes that the relationship can be steadied.
Before going into their closed-door meeting, Wang said China would seek consensus and cooperation to “push the relationship as soon as possible back to the track of healthy, stable and sustainable development.”
Before the meeting, US officials said they would press Wang on the importance of China stepping up its role on the world stage if it wants to be considered a responsible major international player. The US has been disappointed with China over its support for Russia in the war against Ukraine and its relative silence on the Israel-Hamas war.
“China should use whatever ability it has as an influential power to urge calm” in the Middle East, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “We know China has relationships with a number of countries in the region, and we would urge them to use those relationships, the lines of communication they have, to urge calm and stability.”
US officials believe the Chinese have considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.
In a readout after the meeting, the State Department said the two men addressed “areas of difference” and “areas of cooperation,” while Blinken “reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners.”
China’s Foreign Ministry said, “The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and issues of common concern in a constructive atmosphere.”
Wang is scheduled to meet again Friday with Blinken as well as national security adviser Jake Sullivan. They are expected to urge China to play a constructive role in both the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars.
It’s not yet clear if Wang will meet with Biden. The diplomatic practice of reciprocity suggests it is likely, since Blinken met with Xi when he visited China in June.
Neither side has confirmed whether Biden and Xi will meet next month on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders gathering in San Francisco. But Wang’s trip indicates the likelihood is extremely high, said Scott Kennedy, senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“His visit is most likely about nailing down the agenda and negotiating potential deliverables,” Kennedy said.
The Chinese president last came to the US in 2017, when former President Donald Trump hosted him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Biden, who took office in 2021, has yet to host Xi on US soil. The two men last met in Bali, Indonesia, in Nov 2022, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting of leading rich and developing nations.
The US-China relationship began to sour in 2018 when the Trump administration slapped hefty tariffs on $50bn worth of Chinese goods. It deteriorated further over a range of issues, including rights abuses, the South China Sea, Taiwan, technology and the Covid-19 pandemic.
AP
Missile hit on Egypt came from Yemen, says Israel
Tel Aviv: Israel has determined that a missile which hit the Egyptian Red Sea town of Taba overnight was fired from Yemen, an Israeli military spokesperson said on Friday morning.
The missile originated in ‘the Red Sea area’, said Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.
“In the last few hours, an aerial threat was detected in the Red Sea area. Fighter jets were scrambled to the threat area and the issue is under investigation,” Hagari said.
Egyptian media reports said six people were injured when the missile hit a medical facility in Taba, a resort town adjacent to the Israeli city of Eilat.
A US warship in the Red Sea shot down three missiles fired from Yemen that were heading north, towards Israel on Oct 19.
Saudi Arabia is reported to have shot down another missile fired from Yemen.
The launches are attributed to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed threatened on Sunday that “Israeli ships in the Red Sea will be targeted” if Israeli air strikes on Gaza continue.
At least 233 hostages have been confirmed as kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip by Hamas on Oct 7, Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Friday.
Hagari stressed that this number is not final and the military is continuing to investigate new information.
ANI/TPS
