San Francisco, 15 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping will meet in California on Wednesday to try to stabilize the strained relations between the two powers.

The meeting is planned in the San Francisco area and will take place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community (APEC) summit.

Biden and Xi have not seen each other in person since the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, a year ago.

The US side said that the aim of the talks was to organize competition between the two countries in a responsible manner, secure channels of communication, and avoid a drift into military conflict.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said this week that China wanted relations to be put back on a "stable path."

The meeting is expected to last several hours. Relations between the world's two largest economies have been tense for some time. A trade fight, accusations of espionage, tensions surrounding Taiwan and China's stance in the Ukraine war have frayed ties.

Mao warned that Beijing was unwilling to budge when it came to Taiwan and its territorial claims in the South China Sea - two points of contention that has raised the spectre of war.

Sill, in recent months both sides have endeavoured to revive dialogue with each other. The presidential meeting was preceded by numerous meetings between high-ranking members of government from both countries.

Photo: EPA