US President Joe Biden said on Sunday he was in a “stronger” position to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping after Democrats retained control of the upper house of the US parliament.
“I feel good and look forward to the next two years”, said Biden in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, where the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit ends this Sunday.
“I know I come across as stronger,” Biden, who will meet Xi on Monday on the Indonesian island of Bali, told reporters on the sidelines of the summit of the group of 20 most developed economies (G20).
“I know Xi Jinping, he knows me,” Biden added, saying they always had “candid discussions.” The current US president was vice president in 2012, when Xi was elected to lead the Chinese Communist Party.
“We have very few disagreements. We just need to determine what the red lines are,” Biden said.
Leaders of the world’s two largest economies have spoken by phone countless times since Biden became president in January 2021.
But the Covid-19 pandemic and Xi’s aversion to foreign travel prevented the two leaders from meeting in person.
The Democratic Party retains control of the House of Representatives after Catherine Cortez Masto won the last Senate seat representing the state of Nevada.
Tuesday’s midterm elections were a lesson for Republicans, who must now decide “who they are,” Joe Biden said, citing the influence of former President Donald Trump, who continues to claim without any evidence that election fraud took place in 2020.
According to forecasts by the Associated Press (AP), Cortez Masto received enough votes to guarantee victory over Trump-backed Republican nominee Adam Laxalt.
With the confirmation of Cortez Masto’s victory, the Democrats get 50 seats in the Senate, one more than the Republicans, out of a total of 100 contested seats.
Even if the Republicans win the last “available” seat, which is contested in the state of Georgia, they will only get a tie at 50 Senate seats. In this situation, something that is currently happening in the upper house of Congress, Vice President Kamala Harris (Democrat) gets the casting vote.
With control of the Senate, Democrats are ensuring a smoother process for executive nominations and selection of judges, including those for potential Supreme Court seats, in the final two years of President Joe Biden’s term.
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.
Source: DN
