China’s Xi to attend online Biden climate summit

BEIJING: China’s President Xi Jinping will attend US President Joe Biden’s virtual climate summit this week, Beijing said on Wednesday, as the world’s top polluting nations seek rare common ground despite wider political tensions. Biden has invited 40 world leaders including Xi and Russia’s Vladimir Putin to the meet starting on Earth Day, meant to mark Washington’s return to the front lines of the fight against climate change after former president Donald Trump disengaged from the process. The virtual summit will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Biden became president. Xi will give an “important speech” at the meeting, said the Chinese foreign ministry, days after a trip to Shanghai by US climate envoy John Kerry — the first official from Biden’s administration to visit China. Kerry and Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua had said they were “committed to cooperating” on tackling the climate crisis, even as sky-high tensions remain on multiple other fronts. — AFP