For almost two years after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as POTUS and Veep, there were no face to face meetings with Xi Jinping, who anointed himself as China's supreme leader possibly for life at the Communist party congress last month.
Then, voila!, two in-person encounters with Xi, for Joe and Kamala.
Biden, who turned 80 on Sunday, November 20, had a 240-minute long meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali on November 14 night.
After Joe returned to Washington, DC -- his eldest grand-daughter Naomi was getting married on the White House lawns on Saturday -- Kamala took his place at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Thailand on Saturday, November 19, 2022.
IMAGE: This is the only photograph available of Kamala with Xi -- the meeting occurred before the APEC Leaders' Retreat. Photograph: The White House/Handout/Reuters
IMAGE: Kamala with Supreme Patriarch Somdet Phra Ariyavangsagatayana at the Wat Ratchabophit temple, which she visited after attending the APEC summit. Photograph: Haiyun Jiang/Pool/Reuters
IMAGE: Kamala at the Wat Ratchabophit temple. Photograph: Haiyun Jiang/Pool/Reuters
IMAGE: Kamala shops at Or Tor Kor market in Bangkok on Sunday, November 20, 2022 -- likely for her sister Maya, her niece Meena, her grand nieces Amara and Leela and her step children Ella and Kerstin Emhoff -- before departing for the Philippines. Photograph: Haiyun Jiang/Pool/Reuters
IMAGE: Xi Jinping looks on as his wife Peng Liyuan -- one of China's most famous singers -- writes in the guestbook during a meeting with Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and his wife Naraporn Chao-ocha on the sidelines of the APEC summit. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Pool/Reuters
IMAGE: The visits to Indonesia and Thailand were Peng Liyuan's first journeys outside China after the coronavirus epidemic. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Pool/Reuters
IMAGE: Xi and Peng with Prayuth Chan-ocha and his wife Naraporn.Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Pool/Reuters
IMAGE: A Namaste is such a nice way of greeting, instead of a handshake: Prayuth Chan-ocha with Xi. Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Pool/Reuters
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
