At G20 summit meet, Biden and Xi discuss nuclear war, Taiwan and North Korea

US president Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping agreed Monday ‘a nuclear war should never be fought’ and ‘underscored their opposition to the use of or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine’.

A White House statement following the meeting – on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia – said multiple issues had been raised, including climate change and human rights (in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong).

In what was a wide-ranging discussion, Biden also spoke about China’s ‘coercive and increasingly aggressive actions towards Taiwan, which undermine stability across the Taiwan Strait’.

According to Chinese state media, quoted by news agency AFP, Xi told Biden the world is ‘big enough’ for both the United States and China to prosper.

“Under current circumstances, China and United States share more, not less, common interests,” Xi said, stressing Beijing did not seek to challenge the US or ‘change existing international order’.

However, on the thorny Taiwan issue Xi warned Biden not to cross Beijing’s ‘red line’.

Talks – the first between Biden and Xi – began at 4.41 am ET (3.11 pm IST) and went on for over three hours, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

The pair shook hands at the start and Biden greeted Xi, saying the two had to show the world that they could ‘manage our differences (and) prevent competition from becoming conflict’.

“(President Biden)… underscored the United States and China must work together to address transnational challenges like climate change, global macroeconomic stability, including debt relief and health and global food security because that is what the world expects.”

Taiwan, meanwhile, has become the biggest US-China flashpoint in recent months, particularly after Beijing severed many routine contacts in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit.

Biden has repeatedly vowed US assistance to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack on the island Beijing views as its territory.

Apart from ‘Russia’s irresponsible threats of nuclear use’, Biden also ‘raised concerns about the DPRK’s (North Korea) provocative behaviour’.

The US leader called on the world to encourage North Korea to ‘act responsibly’ and said Washington, D.C. will defend Indo-Pacific allies.

Biden’s observations on North Korea come after a series of missile launches by Pyongyang and growing fears of a new nuclear test.