IndiaTheNews Exclusive: What happened in Xi Jinping-Joe Biden meeting due to which India needs to be worried?

This week in IndiaTheNews News Network’s special program Shaurya Path, we wanted to know from Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) that how do you see the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping? Is the distance between the two countries reducing? In response, he said that the respect and warmth that Biden showed for Jinping was amazing. He said Biden welcomed the Chinese leader to the Filoli estate, about 30 miles (48 km) south of San Francisco. He said the APEC meeting comes amid relative Chinese economic weakness, Beijing’s regional fights with neighbors and a Middle East conflict that is dividing the US from allies.

Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) said Xi Jinping came to the meeting expecting respect from the US as China’s economy is struggling to recover from sluggish growth. He said that the expressions and statements of both the leaders during the meeting are worth noting. He said that the video of the two leaders joining hands while leaving after the meeting is worth watching. Also as the two leaders sat across from each other at a long table in a grand conference room, Xi told Biden, “The earth is big enough for the success of both countries.” During this, Biden said that America and China have to ensure that the competition between them “does not turn into conflict” and both move their relationship forward “responsibly”.

Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi ji (Retd) said that after lunch, after talks that lasted for about four hours, the leaders also took a short walk together in the well-maintained garden of that mansion. Asked how the talks were going, Biden waved to reporters and indicated everything was “fine.” He said that during the meeting, Xi Jinping described the US-China relationship as “the most important bilateral relationship in the world”. “For two big countries like China and the United States, turning our backs on each other is not an option,” he said. He said this was the second face-to-face meeting of the two leaders within a year. The two met in person on November 14 last year on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.

Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) said that regarding Xi’s visit to America, China had said that Beijing is not afraid of competition, but we do not agree that China-US relations should be defined by competition. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson had said that the US should respect China’s concerns and legitimate right to development instead of emphasizing its own concerns about its interests. The Chinese spokesperson had said that China does not want America to change nor should America try to change China. The Chinese spokesperson had said that he hoped the US would follow through on its commitment not to want a new Cold War with it and to work with China to put bilateral relations back on track for stable development.

Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) said that during the four-hour meeting, the two leaders agreed to resume discussions on high-level military communications, anti-narcotics cooperation and artificial intelligence. “This is a step in the right direction to determine what is necessary and what is not, what is harmful and what is acceptable,” he said at a press conference. America will continue its competition with the People’s Republic of China, but we will continue this competition responsibly, so that it does not turn into a dispute. Biden said that when the two sides do not negotiate, “differences arise.” In such a situation, now the two Presidents should “pick up each other’s phone and listen to each other directly.” He said that after the then US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan last year, China had shut down military communications. Beijing views self-ruled Taiwan as its own territory and threatens to take it over by force if necessary. At the press conference, Biden said that although they had many differences, Xi “remained clear in his views,” he said.

Brigadier Shri DS Tripathi (Retd) said that both sides also announced several other agreements in areas which had been a cause of tension in recent times. Both countries agreed to jointly explore the immense potential in Artificial Intelligence (AI). He said that it is important to start a dialogue between the world’s two largest economies, America and China. He said that I think this summit is important not only from the perspective of President Biden, but also from the perspective of President Xi. China’s economy is going through a crisis. There are some issues in its development journey, there is unemployment. He said that elections are about to be held in America and two wars are also going on – one in West Asia and one in Ukraine. Therefore, it needs a China that is stable, it needs a China that is cooperative. He said that India is definitely keeping a very serious eye on this.