By Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt
HANOI (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday he held his highest-level direct talks with Chinese leadership in months and said the country’s economic wobbles wouldn’t lead it to invade Taiwan.
“My team, my staff still meets with President Xi’s people and his cabinet,” Biden told reporters. “I met with his No.2 person in India today.”
Chinese Premier Li Qiang attended the annual G20 summit in New Delhi. In March, he took office in the country’s No.2 post.
The two spoke about stability and the Southern Hemisphere, he said.
He added that the Chinese economy has struggled due to a lack of international growth, but Biden didn’t see it leading the country to taking steps to change the status quo of self-ruled Taiwan.
“I don’t think this is going to cause China to invade Taiwan,” Biden said. “As a matter of fact, the opposite, probably doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before.”
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Hanoi and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
