China says Xi and Biden’s two-hour call focused on the need for peace in Ukraine

President Joe Biden held a nearly two-hour phone call on Friday morning with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The call was seen as a critical test of whether Biden can convince China to stay on the sidelines of the conflict in Ukraine, and to turn down Russian requests for military or economic aid.

According to a readout of the call from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Xi told Biden that the United States and China each had an obligation to promote peace.

The White House has yet to issue a formal readout of the call, but said it began just after 9 a.m. and lasted just shy of two hours. That’s an unusually long time for a presidential call with the leader of a U.S. adversary.