President Biden said the U.S. and China made "important progress" on Wednesday after he met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in San Francisco.

Why it matters: It was the first meeting between the two leaders in a year. Prior to the meeting, Biden said the U.S. wanted to improve bilateral relations that have spiraled downward due to fiercely disputed issues including Taiwan, maritime disputes, cybersecurity and espionage, sanctions, and human rights violations.

President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping neared modest agreements on restoring military contacts and combating fentanyl trafficking during a summit aimed at steadying relations between the world’s two leading powers.

After the two leaders sat down for little more than two hours at a wooded Northern California estate on Wednesday, Biden said in a tweet that the two leaders had “made real progress.”

While the summit helped moderate the often bitter tone in U.S.-China relations, it did little to resolve the deep frictions tearing at the countries.

President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping each underscored the need for communications between the two nuclear superpowers at their meeting on Wednesday, which was the first time they’ve spoken in over a year.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Xi emphasized that the two nations need to keep lines of dialogue open to avoid tipping into conflict.

“We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict and we also have to manage it responsibly, competition,” Mr. Biden said, adding that he’s found previous talks with Mr. Xi to be “candid, straightforward and useful.”