Biden aide held hours of “constructive” talks with Chinese diplomat

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, Sept 17 (Reuters) – White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Malta for hours this weekend, Beijing and Washington said on Sunday, as the world’s two largest economies seek to stabilize their troubled relations.

Both sides held “frank, substantive and constructive” talks during multiple meetings on September 16 and 17, according to separate statements from the White House and the Chinese Foreign Ministry released Sunday.

There were also “limited” early signs that severed military communications between the two sides could begin to be restored, a senior Biden administration official said.

Chinese officials did not comment on the prospect of military-to-military communication.

Sullivan’s meeting with Wang was the latest in a series of high-level discussions between U.S. and Chinese officials that could lay the groundwork for a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.

they come in the middle a series of agitations in senior positions in the Chinese government, including the disappearance of defense minister Li Shangfuand The country’s economy is faltering. that have caused consternation in foreign capitals.

The talks in Malta lasted about 12 hours over two days, a senior Biden administration official told reporters. Sullivan last met with Wang in Vienna in May.

China’s Foreign Ministry said both sides agreed to maintain high-level exchanges and hold bilateral consultations on Asia-Pacific affairs, maritime affairs and foreign policy.

The United States told China it was willing to work together on counternarcotics, artificial intelligence and climate change, even as it expressed concern about China’s unspecified support for Russia as Beijing recently sent fighter jets through from China. the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Straitthe US official said.

Wang warned the United States that the Taiwan issue is the “first insurmountable red line of Sino-US relations,” according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement. China claims the autonomous island as its own territory.

Wang also said that China’s development has a “strong internal momentum” and “cannot be stopped,” and that “the Chinese people cannot be deprived of the legitimate right to development.”

The United States has said it seeks healthy competition with China based on fair rules that benefit both countries, but China said despite inviting competitionThe United States has been participating in the suppression and containment of its growth.

The U.S. official said “there have been some small or limited signs” that Beijing is ready to reopen some cross-military communications used to de-escalate conflict between the two countries after those ties were severed following a Visit August 2022 from former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, which angered China.

In its statement, the White House strongly suggested more meetings between the United States and China, adding that both sides “committed to maintaining this strategic channel of communication and to seeking additional high-level engagement and consultation in key areas… in the coming months.”

Biden this month expressed disappointment that Xi did not attend a summit of Group of 20 leaders in India, but said he “could see it.” The next likely opportunity for Biden to hold talks with Xi is an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco in November, where US advisers for months have hoped to host such a meeting.

United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and biden Climate envoy John Kerry have traveled to China this year to thaw relations and ensure continued communication between the two countries amid tensions that erupted after the US military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the United States.

Biden and Xi last met in 2022 on the sidelines of a G20 summit on the resort island of Bali, Indonesia.

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