US President Joe Biden, China’s Xi Jinping discuss COVID origin investigation in first call in 7 months

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden discussed the investigation into the origins of COVID-19 during a call with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Thursday, according to the White House.

“They discussed a range of international issues, including COVID-19, and understanding its origins is certainly a primary concern for this administration,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. “Yeah, it was a topic raised, but I’m not going to go into more detail.”

Biden last month vowed to pressure China into responding to the origins of a pandemic that has now killed 4.8 million people worldwide. Intelligence agencies said they could not resolve the debate over whether the virus emerged from a Chinese research laboratory without Beijing’s help.

Beijing denied the US charge that it did not cooperate with the investigation into the source of the pandemic.

Thursday’s 90-minute call was the first interaction between the two leaders in seven months amid warm ties between the countries.

A US official who spoke to Reuters on Thursday said Biden did not plan to increase the likelihood of US retaliation or “cost” China if China refused to cooperate on the investigation or a number of other issues.

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

The outlet reported that Xi suggested to Biden that countries should continue to contact and communicate and cooperate on pandemic prevention and control and economic recovery as well as major international and regional issues such as climate change.

Saki described the call as respectful and clear, not eloquent or condescending, intended to keep channels of communication open between countries.

Climate and human rights were among the topics, she said, and although economic matters were discussed, they were “not a major part” of the call.

According to Saki, “This was not a call intended to produce an end result.”

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