MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. The meeting between the Chinese and US Presidents, Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, in Indonesia’s Bali was not groundbreaking but Xi made it clear to Biden that the ball is in the United States’ court in the diplomatic settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, a Russian expert told TASS on Monday.

Commenting on the outcome of Monday’s Chinese-US summit, Andrey Bystritsky, chairman of the Board of the Valdai Discussion Club Foundation, noted that the meeting yielded "no breakthrough in relations."

"I don’t think it was a landmark meeting. To my mind, nothing radical happened. Both sides stood their ground. They have their own points of view on all matters. Xi Jinping noted in his speech at the Communist Party congress that China doesn’t want controversy in the world. On the contrary, they want international law to be observed, they want good, at least working, relations between all countries. There is no belligerence in his rhetoric. And at their meeting, the leaders only fixed the current state of things. Nothing groundbreaking, but no escalation," he said.

According to the expert, Xi took advantage of this opportunity of a personal meeting with the US leader to stress that Beijing hopes that the US, NATO and the European Union will establish a comprehensive dialogue with Russia to settle the situation around Ukraine. "The Chinese have already said they favor a political solution to the Ukrainian problem, for talks. And the US side is aware of this Chinese position. But on the other hand, it is important because China emphasized that the ball is largely in the United States’ and its allies' court and that they can play a significant role in settling this conflict by political means," he said.

However, he refrained from optimistic forecasts about whether China’s position could have "any influence on the Americans" on this matter. "Frankly speaking, I am not sure," Bystritsky added.

Biden and Xi met in Bali ahead of the Group of Twenty summit. Before his first offline meeting with the Chinese leader, the US president said that the world expects "China and the United States to play a key role in addressing global challenges from climate change to food insecurity." The Chinese leader expressed the hope that they would be able to exchange views on various aspects of bilateral relations. The talks lasted for more than three and a half hours.