US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed how to harmonize their positions in resuming negotiations with Iran on relaunching the 2015 nuclear deal, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

Officials from Iran and the six countries that made the pact – the UK, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US – will meet in Vienna on November 29 to see if Tehran and Washington can agree to resume indirect talks on the UN. a recognized deal under which Iran limited its nuclear program to seek relief from Western economic sanctions.

“The two presidents had the chance to discuss how we can align our perspectives ahead of this meeting,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told a virtual audience at an event on Tuesday. Web hosted by the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

The Iran nuclear talks were just one of many issues facing the United States and China that Biden and Xi discussed in three and a half hours on November 15. In the most in-depth exchange since Biden took office as US president in January, the two have focused on tensions over Taiwan, strategic nuclear controls and global economic issues.

Regarding Iran, former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the pact recognized by the UN in 2018 and reinstated severe economic sanctions against Iran, prompting Tehran a year later to start developing its capabilities again. nuclear.

The US-Iran talks in Vienna were indirect, with officials from other nations shuttling between them. Iran refuses any direct contact with US officials.

While China is in favor of relaunching the deal, it has entrusted the renewal of the deal to the United States rather than Iran, accusing Washington of abandoning it. China has given Tehran an economic lifeline by buying Iranian oil despite US sanctions.

Biden, speaking in New Hampshire on Tuesday, said he and Xi had a “good meeting,” and that the United States and China have a lot of follow-up work to do together on a range of issues. Biden said he made it clear to Xi that the United States supports Taiwan and wants to see a peaceful and diplomatic resolution of China’s claims to the island.

Xi blamed the tensions on Taiwan seeking US support to gain independence and some on the US side using Taiwan to contain China, a Chinese statement on the meeting said.

“Such movements are extremely dangerous, as is playing with fire. Anyone who plays with fire will get burned, ”the statement read.

Biden and Xi agreed during their virtual meeting to consider the possibility of arms control talks, Sullivan said. The two leaders agreed to “seek to begin to advance discussions on strategic stability,” Sullivan said, referring to US concerns about the build-up of nuclear missiles and missiles from China.

“You will see on many levels an increase in engagement to ensure that there are safeguards around this competition so that it does not escalate into conflict,” Sullivan told the Brookings webinar.

A screen displays a CCTV state media broadcast showing Chinese President Xi Jinping during a virtual summit with US President Joe Biden in Beijing, China [Thomas Peter/Reuters]

The United States has repeatedly urged China to join it and Russia in a new arms control treaty. Beijing stressed that the arsenals of the other two countries were inferior to its own, but indicated that China was ready to conduct bilateral dialogues on strategic security.

No breakthrough was expected at the meeting. Instead, US officials had presented it as an opportunity to set parameters around an increasingly murky relationship between the two great powers.

Analysts praised the meeting between Xi and Biden, saying it seemed like a start to improving US-China relations.

Bruce Jones, senior foreign policy researcher at Brookings, described the overall relationship as “in pretty bad shape” and said “the rate of deterioration has outpaced the rate of diplomacy.”

“It is one thing to start an ongoing arms race or to strike a balance against China’s military build-up in the Western Pacific. But it’s another thing to prevent it from escalating into unwarranted or unwanted conflicts and crises, ”Jones told The Associated Press.

Last week, the two countries pledged at UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, to accelerate action to curb climate-damaging emissions.

After Xi and Biden’s meeting, Chinese state media quoted unnamed Foreign Ministry sources as saying that the two sides will ease access restrictions for journalists from their respective countries.

China Daily newspaper said a consensus on journalists’ visas, among other issues, had been reached before the virtual meeting. The US State Department said China is committed to issuing visas to a group of eligible US journalists.

Biden and Xi’s meeting sends “positive signals,” said Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, a think-tank in Beijing.

“What I hope this summit will do, and also for the next 12 months or more, is that we are suddenly seeing a turning point,” Huiyao told AP.