Joe Biden’s first trip abroad as president saw him meet with scores of U.S. allies as well as a top adversary, leaving him poised to confront the country he’s called America’s most serious global competitor: China and its leader, Xi Jinping.

The world’s second-largest economy was on the agenda throughout Biden’s meetings over the past week with the Group of Seven industrialized nations, NATO, the European Union and even Russian President Vladimir Putin — whose country, the U.S. president remarked, is "getting squeezed by China.”

Biden has long said China would be at the core of his administration’s foreign policy. Yet with Putin’s government accused of interfering in U.S. elections and harboring hackers who targeted America’s critical infrastructure, Biden said he needed to establish some "rules of the road” and predictability in the relationship with Russia.