Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji performs at his enclosure on the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington in September.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

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Jose Luis Magana/AP

Giant panda Xiao Qi Ji performs at his enclosure on the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington in September.

Jose Luis Magana/AP

SAN FRANCISCO — Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that China will ship new pandas to the United States, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” Xi stated Wednesday throughout a dinner speech with enterprise leaders.

The gesture got here on the finish of a day through which Xi and President Biden held their first nose to nose assembly in a yr and pledged to attempt to scale back tensions. Xi didn’t share extra particulars on when or the place pandas is likely to be supplied however appeared to recommend the subsequent pair of pandas are most probably to come back to California, in all probability San Diego.

The bears have lengthy been the image of the U.S.-China friendship since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972, forward of the normalization of bilateral relations. Later, Beijing loaned the pandas to different U.S. zoos, with proceeds going again to panda conservation packages.

The National Zoo’s three big pandas, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji, eight days in the past started their lengthy journey to China. After their departure, solely 4 pandas are left within the United States, within the Atlanta Zoo.

“I was told that many American people, especially children, were really reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas, and went to the zoo to see them off,” Xi stated in his speech. He added that he discovered the San Diego Zoo and folks in California “very much look forward to welcoming pandas back.”

Xi is in California to attend a summit of Indo-Pacific leaders and for his assembly with Biden. He made no point out of the pandas throughout his public remarks earlier within the day as he met with Biden.

When bilateral relations started to bitter prior to now few years, members of the Chinese public began to demand the return of big pandas. Unproven allegations that U.S. zoos mistreated the pandas, generally known as China’s “national treasure,” flooded China’s social media.

But relations confirmed indicators of stabilization as Xi traveled to San Francisco to satisfy with Biden. The two males met for about 4 hours Wednesday on the picturesque Filoli Historic House & Garden, the place they agreed to cooperate on anti-narcotics, resume high-level army communications and increase people-to-people exchanges.

The National Zoo’s trade settlement with the China Wildlife Conservation Association had been set to run out in early December and negotiations to resume or prolong the deal didn’t produce outcomes.

The San Diego Zoo returned its pandas in 2019, and the final bear on the Memphis, Tennessee, zoo went house earlier this yr.