US President Joe Biden and China's Xi Jinping convened a summit in San Francisco, aiming to mend the strained relations between their nations.

Marking the first face-to-face meeting in a year and Xi Jinping's initial visit to the United States in six years, both leaders characterised the talks as exceptionally "constructive and productive." The extensive bilateral discussions unfolded over more than four hours meet.

During the summit, the leaders reached consensus on three key issues: curbing drug trafficking, restoring military communication, and initiating a dialogue on the global challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI).

Nevertheless, lingering tensions, particularly concerning Taiwan, persisted. Jinping emphasised to Biden that Taiwan is potentially the most dangerous issue in their relationship. In a swift response, Biden, just hours after the meeting, labelled Jinping a "dictator" leading a communist country.

President Xi conveyed to a group of American executives that the two global powers must either be adversaries or partners, leaving no room for middle ground.

To delve into the future of US-China relations, CNBC-TV18 spoke with Meera Shankar, Former Ambassador to the USA; Zorawar Daulet Singh, Foreign Affairs Analyst; and Kanwal Sibal, former Foreign Secretary.

According to Meera Shankar, the ongoing strategic, technological, economic, and military competition between China and the United States will persist. However, she notes a concerted effort to move beyond pure containment, focusing on conflict prevention and implementing a more nuanced strategy.

"This meeting has been less stiff than some of the meetings which they had last year on the sidelines of Bali. The objective for the US going into this summit was really stabilisation of the relationship and conflict prevention. Also, the Chinese looking at their economic interest would like to see some mending of fences. I think the basic strategic competition, technological competition, economic competition, military competition between these two great powers is going to continue, but there is an effort to ensure conflict prevention and a more complex strategy than pure containment," Shankar said.

Watch the accompanying video for the entire discussion.

(Edited by : Sangam Singh)

First Published:Nov 16, 2023 10:40 PM IST