CNBC reports that Eswar Prasad, a former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division, said that the U.S. under a Biden administration could cooperate with China on health care and climate change.

President-elect Joe Biden has made the coronavirus outbreak one of his priorities. Biden also called climate change the “number one issue facing humanity” during the campaign.  

“Both of these are issues that are very important to the incoming administration and certainly, on these issues at least China has to be seen as something of a partner even if not a close ally,” Prasad told.

He pointed out in the area of health care, China — where Covid-19 was first detected — appears to have done a “reasonably good job” in handling the pandemic and its fallout. In terms of climate change, the U.S. may not be able to achieve much globally without China’s cooperation, he added.

“So these are areas where I think the two countries might see eye-to-eye, which I hope would provide a better basis for negotiation on much more difficult areas, especially economic and trade policies where there are contentious issues almost built in,” said Prasad.