US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he is in a “stronger position” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping after Democrats retained control of the US Senate.
“I feel good and I am looking forward to the next couple of years,” Biden said in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, where the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit concludes on Sunday.
“I know I’m coming in strong,” Biden, who is due to meet Xi on Monday, on the Indonesian island of Bali, told reporters on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) summit.
“I know Xi Jinping, he knows me,” Biden added, adding that the two had always had “frank discussions.” The current US president was vice president in 2012, when Xi was chosen to lead the Chinese Communist Party.
“We have very few differences. We just need to define what the red lines are,” Biden said.
Leaders of the world’s two largest economies have spoken by phone on numerous occasions since Biden became president in January 2021.
But the COVID-19 pandemic and Xi’s aversion to overseas travel prevented the two leaders from meeting face to face.
The Democratic Party will retain control of the House of Representatives after Catherine Cortez Masto wins the last Senate seat to represent Nevada.
Joe Biden said Tuesday’s midterm elections were a lesson for Republicans, who must now decide “who they are,” referring to the influence of former President Donald Trump, who continues to claim vote fraud in 2020, without any evidence.
According to an Associated Press (AP) forecast, Cortez Masto won enough votes to secure victory over Republican candidate Adam Laxalt, with Trump’s support.
With Cortez Masto’s victory confirmed, Democrats took 50 seats in the Senate, more than Republicans, out of a total of 100 seats.
Even if the Republicans won the last “available” seat, which is available in the state of Georgia, they would only get 50 seats in the Senate. In this case, something that is currently happening in the Congressional Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris (Democrat) gets a tie-breaking vote.
With the Senate in control, Democrats are ensuring a smoother process for executive appointments and judge choices, including those related to potential seats on the Supreme Court, in President Joe Biden’s last two years in office.
The Senate can still reject any legislation passed by the lower house of Congress, the House of Representatives, where Republicans can still win a majority.
