US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping have promised to cooperate on global challenges and agreed on the need to improve strained relations as they sat down for their first in-person meeting as national leaders.

The meeting on Monday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, involved “candid” discussions on a range of issues, including Taiwan, trade, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to separate statements from their offices.

Following the three-hour long talks, Biden told reporters he believed “there need not be a new Cold War”, while their offices said the two leaders stressed the importance of cooperation between Beijing and Washington to tackle global issues.

“Biden underscored that the United States and China must work together to address transnational challenges — such as climate change, global macroeconomic stability including debt relief, health security, and global food security — because that is what the international community expects,” the White House said.

The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, also cited Xi as saying that the “two sides should work with all countries to bring more hope to world peace, greater confidence in global stability, and stronger impetus to common development”.

The meeting follows a spike in tensions between the two countries after top US legislator Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan earlier this year and Biden promised to defend the self-ruled island — which Beijing claims as its own — if China invades it.

“On Taiwan, [Biden] laid out in detail that our one China policy has not changed, the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side, and the world has an interest in the maintenance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said.

Under the “One China policy”, the US recognises the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing over the Republic of China (ROC) in Taipei as the sole and legal government of China. But Washington takes no position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, contending that its future should be determined by peaceful means.

This policy is different to the PRC’s “One China principle”, under which Beijing insists that Taiwan is an inalienable part of its territory.

For his part, Xi stressed that the “Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations”. Resolving this question is an internal Chinese matter and the US must not use Taiwan as a tool to seek advantages in competition with China, he said, according to a readout of the meeting by the Chinese foreign ministry.

(Agencies)