ISTANBUL

Beijing and Washington are close to holding their highest-level meeting in almost a year as Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in San Francisco for a summit with his American counterpart Joe Biden.

The Xi-led Chinese delegation landed in San Francisco late Tuesday local time, where besides meeting Biden, he will also attend a meeting of leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns received Xi at the airport.

The two sides are slated to sit for a summit-level meeting early Wednesday.

Xi and Biden are meeting for their second face-to-face summit in almost a year. The last time they met in Indonesia on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali in November 2022.

Beijing and Washington have held several rounds of talks at many levels to make Xi’s US trip happen, his first since 2015, and the scheduled summit with Biden.

“Let's together work for the full success of the visit,” China’s ambassador to US Xie Feng said soon after Xi landed in San Francisco.

Tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea, economic and trade affairs, high-level military dialogue, and the Gaza conflict are expected to be discussed, among other issues.

In the run-up to the meeting, the countries touted new cooperation to fight climate change.

As Xi flew to the US, Beijing and Washington announced a future course of actions and cooperation to keep a 1.5C temperature rise within reach, "including by meaningfully cutting power sector emissions in the 2020s, addressing all greenhouse gases in Paris Agreement and supporting a strong UN Climate Conference outcome" scheduled in the United Arab Emirates next month, said John Kerry, US special envoy on climate change.

The Chinese and US leaders are also expected to declare a crackdown on the manufacture and export of fentanyl.