Biden says he is “certain” he’ll see China’s Xi at G-20 if he attends

US President Joe Biden holds a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on September 6, 2022.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

President Joe Biden said he will “see” Chinese President Xi Jinping when the world leader also attends the upcoming G-20 summit in November.

“If he’s there, I’ll definitely see him,” Biden said Tuesday when asked about meeting with Xi.

The summit, scheduled to take place this year on Indonesia’s tourist island of Bali, is the annual gathering of the world’s largest economies. Both Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to attend the conference, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said in an interview with Bloomberg News.

Xi has not left the country since January 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden and Xi had previously discussed during their July 28 phone call about a meeting at the G-20 amid heightened tensions over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Chinese officials are planning a November meeting between Xi and Biden in Southeast Asia.