President Joe Biden hopes to walk away from his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday having put the US-China relationship on firmer footing after months of tension between the two superpowers, CNN reports.

With the conflicts raging in the Middle East and Europe, and as he prepares to run for re-election, Biden hopes to prevent another crisis from “exploding”. He not only wants to prove to the Americans – but also directly to Xi – why an improved relationship with Beijing is in everyone’s interest.

Ahead of the talks, US officials were careful to manage expectations, saying they did not expect a long list of outcomes or even a joint statement by leaders, as is customary after summits between leaders.

Instead, the primary goal of the talks was apparent to be the restoration of communication channelsmostly through the military, to avoid the kind of miscommunication or miscalculation that U.S. officials fear could lead to open conflict.

Biden said before leaving for California that he would determine the success of the meeting as a return to a “normal course” with China. He said this included “matching, being able to pick up the phone and talk to each other if there’s a crisis, being able to make sure our soldiers still have contact with each other.”

For most of the past year, US officials have been laying the groundwork for the Biden-Xi summit. With the goal of restoring diplomatic channels between the two countries, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi three times, while Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and the envoy of US climate expert John Kerry has all traveled to Beijing.

Diplomatic initiatives have also gone the other way, with China’s top officials – including its foreign minister – traveling to the US to meet with their American counterparts.

US officials said working-level consultations were held with Beijing on highly sensitive issues such as arms control and maritime issues.

Sources familiar with these efforts say Washington has seen signs in recent months that the Chinese are beginning to accept the “wisdom” of the two venues working together to strengthen their lines of communication and ease misunderstandings.

“Now is precisely the time for high-level diplomacy,” a senior administration official said, CNN reports. “Intense competition requires intense diplomacy to manage tensions and prevent competition from escalating into conflict or confrontation.”

The atmosphere surrounding the summit matched its criticality. The exact location of the meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area was not disclosed in advance for security reasons. And US officials said they had spent hours in discussions with their Chinese counterparts about the
how the meeting would go.

Despite the deep and seemingly warm personal relationship cultivated during their time as vice presidents, Biden and Xi have has seen a deterioration in US-China relations to the lowest level in decades.

China cut off military communications with the US after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last summer. Officials in the Biden administration have since been working to restore the channel, but those efforts have been hampered by the tense episode involving a Chinese spy balloon that Biden ordered shot down earlier this year. A familiar source said Biden is likely to raise the issue with Xi.

The list of topics that the associates of the US president expected to be discussed was long. It includes major areas of disagreement and tension, such as military tensions over Taiwan, China’s disinformation campaigns and human rights abuses, as well as potential areas of cooperation, including efforts to combat drug trafficking.

It was also on the agenda the nuclear enhancement of China, economic issues and efforts to limit climate change.

Also, US officials were finalizing an agreement with China to curb the export of chemicals used to the manufacture of fentanyl ahead of the Biden-Xi talks.

The deal, which is a priority for the Biden administration, would target companies that produce and export the raw material for making the deadly synthetic opioid. The goal would be to significantly limit the flow of “precursor materials” into Mexico, the people said.

The deal could also mark a major political victory at home for Biden, whose administration has grappled with the trafficking of deadly illegal drugs such as fentanyl in an ongoing crisis along the southern border that has strained his administration.