The White House says Biden and Xi discussed the origins of the COVID probe

by

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden discussed the investigation into the origins of COVID-19 during a call Thursday with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, according to the White House.

“They discussed a number of transnational issues, including COVID-19, and understanding their origins is, of course, the administration’s main concern,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. “Yes, it was a raised issue, but I’m not going to go into more detail.”

Biden promised last month to pressure China to get answers about the origins of a pandemic that has now killed 4.8 million people worldwide. Intelligence agencies said they could not resolve a debate over whether the virus emerged from a Chinese research lab without the help of Beijing. Read more

Beijing denies the U.S. indictment for not cooperating with the pandemic source investigation. Read more

Thursday’s 90-minute call was the first conversation for the two leaders ’first conversation in seven months amid good relations between the countries. Read more

A U.S. official who spoke to Reuters on Thursday said Biden had no plans to raise the prospect of retaliation or “costs” if China refused to cooperate in the investigation or on a number of other issues. .

For his part, Xi told Biden that the two countries should respect each other’s basic concerns and properly manage differences, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.

The media reported that Xi suggested to Biden that countries continue contact and dialogue and cooperate on issues such as epidemic prevention and control and economic recovery, as well as major international and regional issues such as change. climate.

Psaki described the call as respectful and sincere, not lecturing or condescending, aimed at keeping communication channels between countries open.

Climate and human rights were among the topics, he said, and although economic issues were debated, “they were not an important part” of the call.

“It wasn’t a call meant to produce end results,” according to Psaki.

Reports by Andrea Shalal, Trevor Hunnicutt, Alexandra Alper and Shubham Kalia; Edited by Leslie Adler and Alistair Bell

Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.

.Source