Biden, Xi discuss AI, Taiwan, fentanyl in bid to resume talks

Xi said the two countries should adhere to the bottom line of ‘no clash, no confrontation’

Russia said on Tuesday its forces had captured 400 square km of Ukrainian territory this year.

Moscow secured its first territorial gains in almost a year in recent months, as Kyiv struggles with manpower and ammunition shortages amid delays to vital Western aid.

“Since the start of the year, 403 square km... have come under our control,” Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said, referring to gains in the Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia regions that Moscow claimed to have annexed in 2022, despite not fully controlling them.

Meanwhile, an Ukrainian drone strike on Rus

sia’s central Tatarstan region — hundreds of miles from the countries’ shared border — wounded over a dozen people, health officials said on Tuesday.

Deep strike

The attack hit a building in a business park in the town of Yelabuga and targeted an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, both some 1,100 km from the border.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Taiwan, artificial intelligence and security issues on Tuesday in a call meant to demonstrate a return to regular leadertoleader dialogue between the two powers.

The call, described by the White House as “candid and constructive,” was the leaders’ first conversation since their November summit in California produced renewed ties between the two nations’ militaries and a promise of enhanced cooperation on stemming the flow of deadly fentanyl and its precursors from China.

Mr. Xi told Mr. Biden that the two countries should adhere to the bottom line of “no clash, no confrontation” as one of the principles for this year. “We should prioritise stability, not provoke troubles, not cross lines but maintain the overall stability of ChinaU.S. relations,” Mr. Xi said.

The call kicks off several weeks of highlevel engagements between the two countries, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen set to travel to China on Thursday and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to follow in the weeks ahead.