“The two sides will discuss ongoing efforts to manage competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,” Horn said in a statement.
But the meeting came as Russia continued its violence in Ukraine, striking a major military base on Sunday that left 35 people dead and more than 130 hospitalized.
During a face-to-face meeting in Rome, Sullivan and Yang will also discuss issues that Biden and Xi discussed during their virtual call last year, people familiar with the matter said. The sources added that this meeting has been in preparation for a long time, and no concrete results are expected from it.
The meeting comes as US officials, including White House press secretary Jen Psaki, are increasingly critical of Beijing’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. While Beijing appeared to be trying to maintain a neutral tone on the international stage, Chinese domestic media coverage promoted Russian disinformation campaigns and described the war as a “special military operation.” On Wednesday, Psaki also tweeted that Beijing “seemed to back” Russia’s false claims that the US was developing chemical weapons in Ukraine.
“Our assessment right now is that (China) is in compliance, but we will continue to encourage any country to think hard about where they want to be – what role they want to play… in history as we all look back.” Psaki said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Sullivan told CNN’s Dana Bash on The State of the Country on Sunday that the US had made it clear to Beijing that a “massive” effort to provide the Kremlin with a bypass to US sanctions “is bound to have consequences.”
“We will not allow this to continue and we will allow Russia to be saved from these economic sanctions from any country anywhere in the world,” he said.
However, Sullivan said that while the US believes “China actually knew before the invasion happened that Vladimir Putin was planning something, they may not have understood the whole thing.”
“Because it’s entirely possible that Putin lied to them in the same way that he lied to Europeans and others,” Sullivan told Bash.
While US officials note that China is complying with sanctions imposed by the US and its allies on Russia, Biden recently said he was not ready to discuss his attempts to pressure China to help isolate Russia due to the Kremlin’s bloody war.
“I’m not ready to comment on this at the moment,” Biden told reporters at the White House in February.
Biden often recounted his conversations with Xi, often reminiscing about the dozens of hours the two leaders spent with each other while they were vice presidents of their country. In his speeches, Biden often likes to recall dinner with Xi in the Tibetan Plateau and describe the United States in one word: “opportunity.”
Since taking office, Biden has emphasized that he believes the US is at a turning point in its history and must show the world that democracies can compete with authoritarian regimes like China’s.
“To compete for better jobs in the future, we also need to level the playing field with China and other competitors,” Biden said in his first address to the US Congress earlier this month.
During a three-hour summit with his Chinese counterpart about four months ago, Biden raised concerns about human rights, China’s aggression against Taiwan, and trade issues. The Biden administration has made it clear that managing competition with China is a long-term national security and economic priority for the United States.
“How the United States, Europe, and Asia work together to secure peace, protect our shared values, and advance our prosperity across the Pacific will be one of the most important efforts we will make,” Biden said at the Munich Security Conference in Last year.
Sullivan is also expected to meet in Rome with Luigi Mattiolo, diplomatic adviser to the Italian prime minister; According to Horn’s statement, the two men will discuss ongoing efforts to respond to the Kremlin’s incursion into Ukraine.
Threat of nuclear escalation
Meanwhile, Sullivan told CNN Sunday that while the Biden administration is “concerned about the possibility of escalation” regarding Putin’s nuclear stance, “we don’t see anything that would require us to change our nuclear stance at this time.”
“We’re watching this very closely, and obviously the risk of escalation with a nuclear power is serious, and it’s a different type of conflict than other conflicts that the American people have faced over the years,” he told State of the Union. . .”
However, Sullivan supported the administration’s decision to reject Poland’s offer to move fighter jets to Ukraine via the US and a German air base.
“The president listened to the assessment of his intelligence community, he listened to the advice of his military command, he consulted with his NATO allies, and ultimately he came to the conclusion that the risk-benefit analysis of aircraft flying from NATO bases into contested airspace over Ukraine doesn’t make sense, there wasn’t something he would sanction,” he said, adding that the US was focused on providing “other air defense systems that could help Ukrainians make progress against the threat posed by air from the Russian side”.
The National Security Adviser also echoed Biden’s comments earlier this week that Russia “will pay a heavy price” if they choose to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, adding that Russia’s accusations of Ukraine preparing to deploy chemical weapons ” are a signal to say that they themselves may be preparing for this, and then try to put the blame on someone else – this is a classic page from the Russian play.
This story has been updated with additional reactions and background information.
Donald Judd of CNN, Jasmine Wright and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.