BALI /Indonesia/, November 14. /TASS/. The United States stands ready to work together with China, if the latter is willing to do so, Joe Biden said ahead of his first in-person meeting as US president with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia’s Bali.

"The world expects, I believe, China and the United States to play key roles in addressing global challenges - from climate changes to food and security," he said. Biden also stressed that China and the US should show that they "can manage our differences <…> and find ways to work together and prevent competition from becoming anything everywhere near conflict."

The US president also assured China that his country was ready to work with it, if that was what Beijing desired. "We will be discussing a lot of these challenges together, I hope, in the next couple [of] hours. The world expects, I believe, <…> for us to be able to work together. The United States stands ready to do just that, work with you, if that’s what you desire," Biden said.

In his turn, the Chinese leader recalled that the two had maintained communication via letters, telegrams and video conferences since Biden became president but that none of them had been "a substitute for face-to-face exchanges." Xi said that at the coming talks he would hopefully have an in-depth exchange of opinions with Biden on relations between China and the United States.