Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed “progress” in talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Beijing on Monday, the final meeting of a trip aimed at ensuring that disputes between the superpowers do not escalate into conflict.
Blinken, the first post-holder to meet the Chinese leader since 2018, approached Xi with outstretched hand in the Great Hall of the People, a place China often uses to receive heads of state: positive signals in the choreography of diplomacy .
The two shook hands, then the delegations met at a conference table draped in pink lotus flowers, with Xi in front and Blinken just to the right.
The roughly 30-minute meeting could help facilitate a summit between Xi and US President Joe Biden later this year.
Biden and Xi last met on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November, promising more frequent communications, though ties have since deteriorated over issues ranging from Taiwan to espionage concerns.
“The two sides have agreed to follow the common understandings that President Biden and I reached in Bali. The two sides have also made progress and reached an agreement on some specific issues. This is very good,” Xi told Blinken on Thursday. start of the meeting. .
Blinken responded by saying that the two countries “have an obligation and a responsibility” to manage their relationship and that the United States is “committed to doing so”.
His meetings in Beijing, including talks with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, were “heartfelt and constructive,” he added.
It wasn’t immediately clear from Xi’s comments or previous readings of Blinken’s meetings exactly what progress has been made.
Chinese state media said Xi told Blinken in closed-door talks that China “looks forward to a solid and stable Sino-US relationship” and believes the two countries “can overcome various difficulties”.
But he also urged the United States not to “harm China’s legitimate rights and interests”, a sign of possible hotbeds such as Taiwan, the democratic island that Beijing claims as its own, that emerged during previous Blinken meetings.
Source: Terra
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