The pullout will "free up time and attention and resources from our senior leadership and our military to focus on what we believe are the fundamental challenges in the 21st century and they lie fundamentally in the Indo-Pacific," the official said.
After Donald Trump's mixed signals to Russia -- and accusations that the Republican even seemed intent on shielding Putin from criticism -- the Democratic chair of the Senate foreign relations committee cheered Biden's approach.
There is a strong push in the United States to cripple the project with sanctions and prevent its completion, out of fear that it will give Moscow a dangerous grip on the energy supplies of US allies in Europe.
She said the United States believes a summit would be a good step forward toward "the development of a stable and predictable relationship" between the two countries.
Biden said the United States had "accomplished" its limited original mission of crushing the international militants groups behind the 9/11 attacks and that with every passing year the rationale for staying was "increasingly unclear."
Beijing became the second largest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations in 2016, and the second largest to the operating budget in 2019, ahead of Japan.
President Joe Biden proposed a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a telephone call on Tuesday, and spokeswoman Jen Psaki said she hoped for an honest and candid conversation between the leaders at such a meeting.
"If you believe you've been harmed or bullied in China, tell us first," Zhang Huanteng, vice director of the Department of National Economy at the NDRC.
"We'd feel very wronged if we aren't aware of things and the US government tells us first," said Zhang, adding that Chinese regulators were baffled when they first read the US Section 301 Report, which set off the Sino-US trade war.