April 22, 2021: -On Wednesday, state media says that Chinese President Xi Jinping will give a speech on Thursday in a video conference at a global leader’s climate summit organized by U.S. President Joe Biden.

Many expected the world’s two largest economies to have their first meeting on the sidelines of the summit as tensions amid the two countries simmer.

Reducing carbon emissions is one of the areas China and the U.S. have said they could cooperate on and aligns with the announcement of Xi last year that the aim of Asian nation to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030.

Over the weekend, the U.S. and China issued a broad statement together on how both the countries would work together to “tackle the climate crisis.” The statement came after two days of talks in Shanghai between the U.S. special envoy for climate John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua.

On Tuesday, at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia, Xi said that China would support “green” development, particularly concerning the Belt and Road Initiative. According to the critics, the infrastructure development program is part of Beijing’s attempt to increase its influence among less developed countries in the region.

Xi did not mention the U.S. by name in his speech but added that big countries should responsibly behave and that China would not seek hegemony or “a sphere of influence.”

The announcement Wednesday that Xi would attend the climate summit comes more than three weeks since Biden invited 40 world leaders to attend the two-day meeting set for Thursday and Friday.