‘Constructive’: US and China meet in bid to cool tensions
US secretary of state Anthony Blinken and China’s foreign minister Qin Gang met today in Beijing to begin a two-day set of talks.
Whilst neither side expects a major breakthrough to emerge, US officials said the main goal is to stabilise a relationship that has become extremely tense.
The talks come at a time of increasing tensions between the two superpowers over Taiwan and trade, not helped by the memory of the surveillance balloon incident of February this year, which scuppered a previous attempt to meet.
Blinken has hailed the conversations as “candid” and “constructive” while Qin confirmed Beijing was committed to building a stable, predictable and constructive relationship with the US. He did, however, warn that Taiwan was the “most prominent risk” for relations.
The US reported that Qin has agreed to visit Washington later in the year.