BEIJING (AP) — China’s foreign minister believes the path to an expected meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden will not be “smooth” and that both sides must work together to achieve results, the foreign ministry said Sunday.
Wang Yi met with Biden as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan during a three-day visit to Washington. Both sides agreed to work towards a bilateral meeting as part of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco starting November 11.
In a statement released by China’s Foreign Ministry summarizing the discussions, Wang said the path to the bilateral meeting will not be “smooth” and that it cannot rely on an “autopilot” to achieve it.
Wang’s visit to Washington came at a time when tensions between the countries remain high, including over U.S. export controls on cutting-edge technology and China’s more assertive actions in the East and South China Seas.
The statement said that while there are still many issues to be resolved, both sides believe it is both beneficial and necessary for the United States and China to maintain dialogue.
The meeting is the latest in a series of high-level contacts between the two countries exploring the possibility of stabilizing an increasingly strained relationship at a time of conflict in Ukraine and Israel.
According to the Foreign Ministry statement, Wang also said that China and the US needed a “return to Bali,” referring to Xi and Biden’s meeting at a G20 summit last year where both officials discussed issues related to Taiwan, the United States and China discussed trade tensions and cooperation to address issues such as climate change, health and food security.
Wang said the two countries need to “eliminate interference, overcome obstacles, strengthen consensus and achieve results.”
Other topics discussed between Wang and Biden included U.S.-China military exchanges and financial, technological and cultural exchanges and cooperation, as well as the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.