At the upcoming summit between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the two sides are to build on the progress made on bilateral cooperation and address their differences, the White House said Monday.[Special coverage]
On the eve of the G20 summit to be held next week in China, Obama and Xi will hold an "extensive bilateral meeting" on Saturday, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told a White House news briefing.
Obama is also expected to attend a small dinner hosted by President Xi, Rhodes said.
"And this will build on the work that we've done in our previous travel to Beijing, which included the historic breakthrough announcement on cooperation on climate change and also the engagements we've had here in Washington and Sunnylands with President Xi Jinping," Rhodes said.
He was referring to the previous engagements between the two presidents, including their first informal summit held at the Sunnylands estate in California in 2013 and Xi's first state visit to Washington last September.
At the upcoming summit, the two leaders will review all of the issues that have been front and center in the U.S.-China relationship for the last seven and a half years, Rhodes noted.
On the positive side, they will review the progress that has been made on the global economy, climate change, the shared efforts to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons through the Iran deal, and the shared concerns about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, he said.
At the same time, the two leaders will also address differences, such as cyber issues, economic practices, maritime issues, and human rights, Rhodes said.
They will try to see where the two sides can make progress on working together on areas of common interest or bridging some of the differences that have been characteristic of the relationship, he added.
The 11th G20 summit is to be held on Sept. 4-5 in China's eastern city of Hangzhou under the theme of "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy."
It is expected to make an action plan on implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and to focus more on development issues with an aim to inject new impetus into the world economy and promote global consensus on development.
