The Washington Post newspaper revealed on Friday that the White House has begun making plans to hold a meeting in the American city of San Francisco (in the state of California) next November between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping - in an attempt to ease tension and achieve stability in the country. The relationship between the two most powerful countries in the world, senior administration officials told the newspaper.

The newspaper attributed an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the participation had not yet been officially announced, as saying, “It is a very firm matter, and we have begun the planning process,” while another senior administration official said that Biden is looking forward to meeting Xi, but "Nothing has been confirmed yet."

Chinese President Xi's meeting with Biden is expected to be confirmed, and its date will be set after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Washington in the coming weeks.

This personal meeting, which will be held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum between November 11 and 17 in the city of San Francisco on the west coast of the United States, will be the first between the leaders of the two largest economies in the world since they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November of last year, when the two presidents emphasized the importance of face-to-face diplomacy and expressed their hope that they could put US-China relations back on track.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to take advantage of the growing interconnectedness of the Asia-Pacific region.

Relations between the two countries worsened after Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese balloon, which Washington claimed was a spy balloon, over the United States last February.

In an attempt to re-engage, four senior Biden administration officials have visited the Chinese capital, Beijing, in recent months: Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary, Gina Raimondo, and climate envoy, John Kerry.

Last month, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held two days of talks with Wang in Malta.

The White House described these talks as "frank, objective, and constructive," but communications between senior American military officials and their counterparts in Beijing remain "frozen" despite repeated initiatives from the American side.

Observers are looking to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco as the appropriate venue for this meeting.