US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he would ask Chinese President Xi Jinping about his “red lines” to ease the potential for conflict after rising tensions on Taiwan when they meet in Bali next week.

A day before his flight to Asia, Biden indirectly confirmed plans to meet Xi on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, which would be their first meeting since they became presidents of the world’s two largest economies.

“What I want to do with him when we talk is set out what for — what each of our red lines is,” Biden said at a post-US midterm election news conference.

Biden said he was trying to know “what he thinks are the critical national interests of China, what I think are the critical interests of the United States, and whether or not they conflict with each other.”

If there are conflicts, Biden said he hopes to work together on “how to resolve it.”

Biden and Xi have spoken virtually as presidents but have not met in person, with the Chinese leader postponing international travel due to the Covid-19 pandemic until recently.

Xi is traveling to the Indonesian holiday island fresh off a historic third term for his Communist Party, while Biden is flying out after a surprisingly strong showing by his Democrats in the midterm elections.

The two leaders know each other unusually well for two presidents, with Biden traveling to China to spend time with Xi in 2011 when they were both vice presidents.

Eleven years later, tensions over Taiwan have soared after the Biden administration warned that China has extended its timeline to seize the self-governing democracy it claims as part of its territory.

Biden has indicated three times that he is ready to use the US military to defend Taiwan, a break with long-standing policy that has been rolled back by the White House each time.

Biden insisted on Wednesday that nothing has changed from the historic US stance of strategic ambiguity over whether Washington would use force in the event of a Chinese invasion.

“The Taiwan Doctrine hasn’t changed at all from the beginning,” Biden said, adding that he will talk about Taiwan, but also about trade and China’s relations with other countries.

US concerns about Taiwan were greatly eased by Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, an operation that until recently was considered a remote possibility.

Biden bluntly reiterated US assessments that China has been reluctant to provide material support to Russia, despite President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing to meet Xi ahead of the invasion.

“I don’t think China has a lot of respect for Russia or Putin,” Biden said.

“I don’t think they see it as a specific alliance. In fact, they kept their distance a bit.”

Biden, like his predecessor Donald Trump, has identified China as the United States’ main global competitor and has promised to realign US policy to meet the challenge.

But the Biden administration has also promised to work with China on common interests like climate change.

US Climate Ambassador John Kerry met briefly with his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, marking another thaw of tensions.

China said it would suspend the climate dialogue, a focus of Biden’s, out of anger after a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat second only to the presidency, to Taiwan in August.