ASEAN talks: Blinken to meet China’s Wang Yi on sidelines
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will hold talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Jakarta on Thursday, the US State Department said. Blinken is visiting Jakarta amid a meeting of ASEAN member state foreign ministers.
Wang Yi is attending for China, after Beijing said that Foreign Minister Qin Gang could not be present for health reasons. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was also expected in the Indonesian capital on Thursday, with media in Moscow reporting he too would hold talks with the Chinese delegation.
Recent flurry of US-Chinese outreach, as well as mutual critique
The world’s two largest economies have arranged several sets of relatively high-level talks in recent weeks amid a period of frosty relations. Blinken met Qin and Wang, as well as President Xi Jinping, in Beijing last month, in the first visit to China by a US secretary of state in five years.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also visited last week and climate envoy John Kerry is expected there next week. Proposed talks between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu did not materialize at last month’s Shangri-La Dialogue, however.
Li, a military general, currently faces US sanctions, which Beijing has repeatedly criticised.
Also on Wednesday, China’s ambassador made a rare visit to the Pentagon for talks with the top US defence official for Asia, the Pentagon and China’s Embassy in Washington said.
This followed China complaining that the US had been reluctant to engage in military communications, with Austin having made similar comments in reverse after his talks with Li did not take place.
NATO summit criticised Beijing’s ‘ambitions and coercive policies’
Blinken is in Asia as US President Joe Biden is on a rare foreign trip for the NATO leaders summit, which wrapped up in Vilnius, Lithuania on Wednesday. The summit communique from NATO expressed concerns about “the deepening strategic partnership” between Russia and China, and said that Beijing challenged the interests and security of the bloc.
China had responded critically to this, also saying it rejected any NATO attempts to expand into the Asia-Pacific region.
The leaders of NATO non-members Japan and South Korea both attended the Vilnius summit.
Beijing’s military was active in waters off Taiwan during the summit.
US company Microsoft also said on Wednesday that a Chinese group had hacked government email accounts. Meanwhile, the German government is expected to release a strategy document on its approach to ties with China later on Thursday.