Blinken to explore cooperation with China in upcoming trip: official
The United States will seek to expand cooperation with Beijing when Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits China next year, a senior State Department official said, calling the trip the “next step” in advancing talks toward stabilizing ties between the major powers.
Returning from last week’s trip to China, Japan and South Korea, Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, also described the trilateral cooperation involving Tokyo and Seoul as reaching an “unprecedented level,” and warned North Korea that further missile tests will be met with a resolute response.
Kritenbrink visited China in a follow up of last month’s meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in the Indonesian resort island of Bali, with the two tasking their teams to discuss “principles” to manage their competition.
The leaders, who met for the first time in person after Biden took office in January last year, also agreed at the time that Blinken would visit China for follow-up discussions.
Kritenbrink said during the interview at the State Department that Blinken’s trip to China early next year; his first as secretary of state, will be “the next step” in advancing discussions “on a full range of issues on our bilateral agenda.”
“We hope that it will contribute to responsibly managing the competition between us, or, as we say, building a floor under the relationship in the name of hopefully imparting some stability to the relationship,” he said, noting that the secretary is also expected to “discuss ways we can expand cooperation.”
The Biden administration has cited global challenges such as climate change, health and food security issues as potential areas that the world’s two largest economies should work together on.
While efforts continue to maintain open lines of communication between the two countries, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs indicated the difficulty of seeking an immediate breakthrough in their bilateral ties, which have been overshadowed by tensions over Taiwan, trade and other issues.
“The diplomacy that we’ve conducted with China, particularly between our presidents in Bali, I think it was constructive,” he said. “But it doesn’t represent a fundamental change… in this very consequential but complex relationship.”
The Biden administration will maintain its approach to China based on three key pillars; investing in strength at home, aligning with allies and partners in buttressing the regional and global rules-based order, and competing with China vigorously but in a responsible way that does not lead to miscalculation, he said.
It also believes in the importance of establishing what it calls guardrails, so that competition does not veer into conflict.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES