Joe Biden ‘stronger’ for crunch talks with Xi Jinping

US President Joe Biden said the Democrats’ unexpected midterm election successes sent him into crunch talks with China’s Xi Jinping in a stronger position.

Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen admires Joe Biden’s fashion sense at the East Asia Summit dinner in Phnom Penh on Saturday night. Picture: AFP

US President Joe Biden said the Democrats’ unexpected midterm election successes sent him into crunch talks with China’s Xi Jinping in a stronger position.

The Democrats’ retention of Senate control on Sunday AEDT added to the party’s remarkable success in midterm elections that traditionally deliver a rejection of the party in power.

“I feel good and I’m looking forward to the next couple years,” Mr Biden said in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on the eve of his Monday meeting with Mr Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, which start on Tuesday.

“I know I’m coming in stronger. I know Xi Jinping, he knows me,” he added, saying they have always had “straightforward discussions”.

The two men have known each for more than a decade, since when Mr Biden was vice-president, but on Monday they will be face-to-face for the first time in their current roles.

“We have very little misunderstanding. We just gotta figure out what the red lines are,” Mr Biden said.

During their talks, the President is expected to press Mr Xi to rein in North Korea after its barrage of missile tests over recent weeks. A record-breaking spate of launches by the North has sent fears soaring that the reclusive ­regime will soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.

Mr Biden met his South Korean counterpart, Yoon Suk-yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh on Sunday to discuss ways to address the threat posed by Pyongyang’s “unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs”, the White House said.

Pyongyang ramped up its launches in response to large-scale US-South Korean air exercises, which the North described as “aggressive and provocative”.

Mr Biden will use his talks with Mr Xi to urge China to use its ­influence as North Korea’s main ally to press Kim Jong-un’s ­regime to cool down.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the President would not make demands but would warn Mr Xi that further missile and nuclear build-up would mean the US boosting its military presence in the region, something Beijing bitterly opposes.

“North Korea represents a threat not just to the United States, not just to (South Korea) and Japan but to peace and stability across the entire region,” Mr Sullivan said.

Mr Biden flew to Phnom Penh from the COP27 climate conference as part of US efforts to boost its influence in Southeast Asia as a counter to China, which has been flexing its muscles – through trade, diplomacy and military clout – in recent years in a region it sees as its strategic backyard.

Mr Biden took a veiled swipe at Beijing in talks with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc at the weekend. He said the US would work with ASEAN to ­“defend against the significant threats to rules-based order and threats to the rule of law”.

While Mr Biden did not refer to China by name, Washington has long criticised what it says are Beijing’s efforts to undermine international norms on everything from intellectual property to human rights.

AFP