PremiumSecretary of State Antony Blinken said his trip to China early next year will help strengthen lines of communication between the US and China and follow up on issues raised during President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week.
Blinken said his trip will focus on bilateral issues raised by the two leaders, regional concerns and global problems such as health security and climate change.
“We need to keep open and strengthen lines of communication between our two countries," Blinken said Thursday at the APEC forum in Bangkok. “That is necessary if we’re going to responsibly manage the relationship to deal with the competition that we have so that it doesn’t veer into conflict."
Biden and Xi met Monday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali -- their first in-person meeting since Biden took office.
At the meeting, the US and China agreed to restart talks on issues including climate change and cooling tensions over Taiwan. They also said Blinken would make the official visit to China early in the new year, the highest-level US trip there since former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went in 2018.
Relations between the US and China, already frayed by disputes over trade and human rights issues, worsened dramatically after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defied Beijing with a high-profile visit to Taiwan in August.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.