(CNN) National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with top Chinese official Wang Yi in Vienna for “frank” and “constructive” talks, the White House said on Thursday.
The previously unreleased meeting is among the highest-level meetings between US and Chinese officials since the spy balloon incident earlier this year, which prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing, and it comes amid an incredibly tumultuous period held year in relations between the two nations.
“This meeting was part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and engage in responsible competition,” the White House readout said Wednesday and Thursday at the meeting.
“The two sides held frank, substantive and constructive discussions on key issues in US-China bilateral relations, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war against Ukraine and cross-strait issues, among others,” the statement said.
A senior US government official said the meeting was an attempt to reestablish communications following the spy balloon incident.
“I think both sides realized that this unfortunate incident has caused a little pause in engagement. We are now trying to go beyond that and just restore a normal channel of communication,” the official said during a subsequent phone call with reporters.
“We have made it clear where we stand in terms of breaching sovereignty, we knew that from the start. But again, we’re trying to keep our eyes on the future,” the official added, noting that they were focused on “how” do we deal with the other issues that are at the moment and manage the tensions in the existing relationship ?
The official said Chinese officials recognized the importance of working with the US to try to settle ties, which the official said was a “deviation” from Chinese statements on previous US-Chinese engagements.
“I think both sides thought it worthwhile to have another conversation at the level of the Director of National Security Advisory,” they said. The last time officials met at this level was last June.
“I think both sides see the value of this unobtrusive channel in solving some of the more complex issues in the bilateral relationship,” the official added.
The meeting came about “quite quickly,” the official said, lasting eight hours over two days in Vienna. It was one of the more constructive meetings they’ve attended, the official told reporters.
Sullivan told Wang that the US and China are competitors, but the US “does not seek conflict or confrontation.”
He raised the cases of three unlawfully detained American citizens – Mark Swidan, Kai Li and David Lin. The two sides also discussed the issue of drug control.
The official said they weren’t specific about the postponement of Blinken’s trip to Beijing, but they “anticipate there will be appointments both ways in the coming months.”
They also didn’t go into details about scheduling a phone call between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, “but I think both sides recognize the importance of senior-level communication,” the official said.
Blinken was due to travel to China in early February, but the trip was postponed in response to the Chinese surveillance balloon crossing the United States.
The senior US diplomat said the balloon’s presence over the US “created conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.”
In February, weeks after the balloon incident, Blinken met with Wang on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
At that meeting, Blinken “addressed directly the unacceptable violation of US sovereignty and international law,” saying that incidents like the balloon that hovered over US airspace for days before the US shot it down off the coast of South Carolina ” should never happen”. “Once again,” former State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Blinken, whom a senior State Department official described as “very forthright and forthright throughout,” began the hour-long meeting by noting “how unacceptable and irresponsible” it was for China to fly the balloon into U.S. airspace. The minister later expressed disappointment that Beijing had not held a dialogue between military figures at the time of the Chinese balloon incident, the senior official told reporters.
“He openly expressed our disappointment that our Chinese military colleagues had recently refused to pick up the phone. We think that’s unfortunate. And that’s not how our two sides should do business,” the official said.
At an event in early May, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said the US was “ready to talk to China” and expressed hope that Beijing would “meet us halfway on this.”
He said the US was ready for “a broader engagement at the Cabinet level,” adding, “We have never supported a freeze on that relationship.”