MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Biden is in Lima, Peru, meeting with leaders from the Asia-Pacific region. He'll meet China's president, Xi Jinping, tomorrow.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The two will sit down tomorrow in what is expected to be their final summit before Biden leaves office. Here's how the president's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, described it.
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JAKE SULLIVAN: So it's an important meeting. It will not be just a valedictory, although there will be an element of reflecting over the course of their long relationship. There is actual work to do in this critical moment between the U.S. and China, to ensure that we don't run into any problems in the next two months in this transition of power.
MARTIN: NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid is in Lima with the president, and she is with us now. Good morning.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So as, of course, we all know, President Biden is at the end of his time in office. What can he actually get done at this meeting tomorrow?
KHALID: I mean, there are two main missions for this meeting. One is that Biden wants to cement the policy cooperation he feels he's been able to achieve in this relationship over the course of the last four years. You know, work to stop the flow of fentanyl, coordination on climate issues and discussions around the challenges of artificial intelligence. But I would say most importantly, the other main mission here is to emphasize that it is important to keep the lines of communication open, particularly the lines of military-to-military cooperation. You might recall those stopped for a bit because of tensions over spying. And Biden wants to make this point clear during this transition period where one administration is handing off to the next because they believe - this administration believes that it is a delicate moment. Here's how Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, explained that.
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SULLIVAN: They're a time when competitors and adversaries can see, possibly, opportunity because you have this change in government here. And so part of what President Biden will communicate is that we need to maintain stability, clarity, predictability through this transition.
MARTIN: But how can he credibly make that point about predictability, given that President-elect Trump wants to roll back and change much of what President Biden has done?
KHALID: That is a fair understanding, given how much disagreement there is in Washington over policy. But one rare area of bipartisanship is China policy. There's been a degree of continuity. For example, Trump, in his first term, put sweeping tariffs on imports of Chinese goods. And Biden, for the most part, has kept those in place.
And one thing that caught my ear is that Biden's national security adviser told reporters that he sees some continuity in China policy based on who Trump has selected for national security adviser - that's Congressman Mike Waltz - and also his pick for secretary of state, Senator Marco Rubio. Both of these men have been really focused on the challenges with China. And this White House feels that competition with China is going to be the defining issue for what the world looks like in the coming decades. And so in order for the U.S. to succeed over the long run, they feel that U.S.-China relationships really need to have bipartisan support.
MARTIN: Trump has said he wants to hike tariffs on China. That is something he promised during the campaign. Do we know whether Biden is going to talk about that with Xi?
KHALID: Yeah. I mean, Biden is expected to talk about unfair trade practices. But I will say - President Xi has his own relationship with the former and now future President Trump. They had meetings during Trump's first term, and trade was always front and center. So I'm not sure that Xi or Trump will be looking for advice there.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Asma Khalid. Asma, thank you.
KHALID: My pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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