U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the latest in a series of meetings aimed at reducing tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The Assembly took place on New York city, USA.
At the start of the meeting, Han opined that the relationship between the two countries is “the most important” on the planet, and highlighted China’s “commitment” to stabilize ties between both powers.”The world needs stable and healthy China-U.S. relations,” Han Zheng said.
After these words, the leader of American diplomacy, Mr. Blinken, mentioned the last “high-level contacts” that have taken place in recent weeks between the Governments with the objective of “keeping the lines of communication open”.
“From the perspective of the United States, face-to-face diplomacy is the best way to deal with areas where we disagree, and also the best way to explore areas of cooperation between us,” Blinken explained.
The head of American diplomacy and the Chinese vice-president arrived just one day after the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, and the White House Security Council, Jake Sullivan, met in Malta to speak about it Taiwan situation and the Ukrainian war.
Behind these meetings is a possible future meeting between the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, which could take place during the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) next November in San Francisco (EE.UU.).
Biden and Xi last met in 2022 during the G20 in Bali (Indonesia), a meeting that the US president has said he wants to repeat.
Both powers are bringing their positions closer after months in which the relationship was at a minimum due to trade rivalries, tension over Taiwan, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the discovery of an alleged Chinese spy balloon in the United States.
Blinken visited Beijing last June to iron out differences, a trip that was later repeated by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen; the special envoy for Climate, John Kerry, and the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo.
Source: https://www.reuters.com
