Already in Vietnam, after visiting India to participate in the G20 meeting, Biden said he had spoken with Li Qiang about the “conference in general” and the opportunities for the so-called “Global South.”
US President Joe Biden said this Sunday that he held a “non-hostile” meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India.
At a press conference in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, Joe Biden revealed that he met Li Qiang at the G20 summit and said the two talked about the “conference in general” and opportunities for the so-called “Global South.”
Until now it was not known that the president of the United States had met with the prime minister of China and this Sunday one of his foreign policy advisors, Jon Finer, said he had no information about the conversations between Joe Biden and Li Qiang.
The G20 met this weekend at a summit in New Delhi, India’s capital.
The G20 brings together the 19 most developed or emerging economies and the European Union. The African Union became part of the group on Saturday and the name change to G21 has not yet been mentioned.
In statements to journalists in Hanoi, the president of the United States considered that China’s economic situation makes the invasion of Taiwan less likely, an island whose sovereignty is claimed by Beijing and to which Washington supplies a large amount of weapons.
During the press conference, Biden was asked about China’s slowing economic growth and whether this could lead the Chinese government to act more aggressively toward Taiwan, even going so far as to invade the island.
“I don’t think this will make China invade Taiwan. In fact, on the contrary, it probably will not have the same capacity as before,” the US president responded.
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of an invasion by China, which considers the island as one of its provinces that it wants to return to its homeland, if necessary by force, although it claims to be in favor of a peaceful path.
Washington has recognized Beijing since 1979, but remains Taiwan’s strongest ally and supports the island’s right to decide its own future.
The United States and its Western allies have stepped up so-called “freedom of navigation” passages by warships through the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to reinforce that both are international waterways, angering Beijing.
The Taiwan Strait, just 130 kilometers long at the closest point between the island and mainland China, is the main transit point for goods from the region to world markets.
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, but Beijing considers the democratic island one of its provinces.
The island, which currently has 23 million inhabitants, has lived autonomously since then, and China threatens to take it by force if it declares its independence, which it would consider a break with the situation of recent decades.
Source: Observadora
