Biden urges Xi to press Iran not to widen Israel-Hamas conflict, withhold military support to Russia

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday appealed to Xi Jinping to use his influence to try to calm global tensions, particularly to try to pressure Iran not to widen the conflict between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas. Biden also pressed Xi to continue to withhold military support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Biden did most of the talking on the matter, and that Xi mostly listened,” said a US official, adding, that it was too soon to tell what sort of message China was sending to Tehran and how it was being received. During the meeting, apart from Iran and Russia, the two leaders also discussed a host of issues including bilateral ties, regional and key global issues, the Middle East, Ukraine, Taiwan, Indo-Pacific, economic issues, artificial intelligence, drugs, and climate change. The two leaders spent four hours together at a northern California country estate, holding meetings, lunching and taking a garden stroll that seemed intent on showing the world that while they are global competitors they’re not locked in a winner-take-all faceoff. Following the meeting, China agreed to act against companies that engage in illegal drug trade in the US, according to a senior administration official. The two leaders also agreed on the resumption of military-to-military level talks with Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart taking the lead, while the PACIFIC Commander has operational-level engagement with his counterparts in China, he said. Finally, the two countries also agreed to have an engagement on the issue of artificial intelligence, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity soon after the talks were over. President Xi made it clear that he wanted to stabilise the relationship with the United States, the official said, adding that Biden was very direct with Xi and told him that China did not provide a level playing field to the US companies. Xi also expressed his own set of concerns and asserted that the reporting on the Communist Party of China in the US was not fair while strongly denying the reports that China was headed towards invading Taiwan. The two leaders had a substantial discussion on Taiwan with Xi terming it as the most dangerous aspect of the US-China relationship. While Biden said the US believes in the status quo, Xi said peace is good, but at some point, they need to move towards resolutions of the issue. With inputs from agencies