By Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;said on Monday&nbsp;after&nbsp;unveiling&nbsp;details of a major&nbsp;submarine&nbsp;deal&nbsp;with Britain and Australia aimed at&nbsp;countering&nbsp;China&nbsp;that&nbsp;he&nbsp;expected to speak to Chinese leader&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;Jinping soon, but declined to say when.
Asked at a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in San Diego if&nbsp;he&nbsp;was worried that&nbsp;China&nbsp;would see the&nbsp;AUKUS&nbsp;submarine&nbsp;deal&nbsp;as aggression,&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;replied "no."
Asked if&nbsp;he&nbsp;would speak to&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;soon,&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;said "yes," but to another question as to whether&nbsp;he&nbsp;would tell journalists when they would&nbsp;talk,&nbsp;he&nbsp;replied "no."
Biden&nbsp;said in mid-February&nbsp;he&nbsp;expected to speak to&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;about what the&nbsp;United States said was a Chinese spy balloon that flew through American airspace, worsening already tense relations, but no such call has been announced.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week the&nbsp;United States wanted to re-establish regular communications with&nbsp;China&nbsp;and&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;expected to speak with&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;by telephone sometime&nbsp;after&nbsp;China's government returns to work following its annual National People's Congress that ended on Monday.
The&nbsp;AUKUS agreement to provide Australia with nuclear- powered&nbsp;submarines is aimed at&nbsp;countering&nbsp;China&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Indo-Pacific and Beijing has condemned it as an illegal act of nuclear proliferation.
"Competition requires dialogue and diplomacy," Sullivan told a small group of reporters last week in reference to&nbsp;China&nbsp;while discussing AUKUS. "We encourage the&nbsp;PRC (People's Republic of&nbsp;China) to have regularized patterns of communications at senior levels."
Asked when a call with&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;might happen, Sullivan replied: "When the&nbsp;People's Congress is over and the&nbsp;government, including the&nbsp;president, return to work in Beijing&nbsp;the&nbsp;(U.S.) president anticipates the&nbsp;opportunity to engage in a phone call."
"Over the&nbsp;course of 18 months we have communicated with (China) about AUKUS and sought more information from them about their intentions," Sullivan added, referring to&nbsp;China's military buildup, including nuclear powered&nbsp;submarines.
China's foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing on Tuesday that both&nbsp;China&nbsp;and the&nbsp;U.S. were maintaining necessary communication.
"We believe that the&nbsp;value and significance of communication is to enhance the&nbsp;level of understanding and manage our differences, not to communicate for the&nbsp;sake of communicating. The&nbsp;U.S. side should come forward sincerely, with practical actions to promote&nbsp;China-U.S. relations," Wang said.
The&nbsp;Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the&nbsp;first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That call was likely to take place&nbsp;after&nbsp;Xi's visit to Moscow next week to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, the&nbsp;newspaper said.
Sullivan told reporters en route to San Diego on Monday that Washington has been publicly and privately encouraging&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;to&nbsp;talk&nbsp;to Zelenskiy so that they&nbsp;hear "not just the&nbsp;Russian perspective" on the&nbsp;war.
Sullivan added that Ukraine had not confirmed a call between&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;and Zelenskiy.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Michael Martina, Joe Cash in Beijing; Editing by Grant McCool and Stephen Coates)

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After unveiling submarine deal to counter China, Biden says Xi talks expected 'soon'