US President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping spoke by phone on Tuesday, the White House said.
The call touched on Taiwan and a number of other topics. A readout of the call will be released shortly.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will visit China during separate trips in the coming days and weeks.
The White House said the two had a candid and constructive discussion on a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including areas of cooperation and areas of difference.
Counternarcotics cooperation, ongoing military-to-military communication, artificial intelligence-related risks, and climate change were among the topics they talked about.
Biden emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the rule of law and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, according to the White House.
He also raised concerns over Beijing’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base and its impact on European and transatlantic security. China is providing the components that can work “slowly towards increasing Russia’s capabilities in Ukraine - and that has, of course, longer-term impacts on European security,” a US official said before the call.
Chinese state media, after the call, reported that Xi said bilateral ties between Beijing and Washington were stabilizing; however, negative factors in the relationship were also increasing.
