Barack Obama, Xi tout close US-China climate coordination

President Barack Obama on Monday touted close US cooperation with China on climate change as vital to world efforts to slow global warming, even as he acknowledged persistent differences with China’s President Xi Jinping over cybersecurity and maritime security. 

Huddling with Xi on the sidelines of the Paris climate conference, Obama said nowhere had coordination with Beijing been more critical or more fruitful than on climate change. He credited US and Chinese leadership with leading 180 nations to make their own pledges to curb emissions in the run-up to the Paris talks. “Our leadership on this issue has been absolutely vital,” Obama said. 

Yet Obama also invoked hot-button issues that have long vexed US-China relations as he and Xi opened their meeting. The United States has complained bitterly about cyber-attacks against the US emanating from China, and Obama has spoken out regularly against China’s assertive moves in disputed waters in the East China Sea and South China Sea. Yet Obama said the US and China had developed a “candid way of discussing these issues,” adding that he hoped to build on that tradition during his meeting with Xi. The Chinese leader described climate change a huge challenge. Speaking through a translator, he called for the US and China to build a new model of cooperation, using diplomatic language long preferred by Beijing.

Obama’s meeting with Xi at the opening of the two-week Paris conference was designed to underscore the need for all nations to come together on a strong agreement to combat climate change.