China’s foreign minister suggests road to planned Xi-Biden summit in San Francisco will not be smooth
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Mr Wang Yi cautioned the road to the APEC forum summit would not be a smooth one and travelling there would not be on “autopilot”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIJING – China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said the “road to the San Francisco summit will not be a smooth one”, in a reference to an expected meeting between China’s President Xi Jinping and United States President Joe Biden.
Mr Wang met Mr Biden and his top aides in Washington in recent days, with both sides agreeing to work together towards the expected bilateral meeting on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
A flurry of recent bilateral diplomatic engagements, largely at the request of Washington, has aimed at salvaging what were rapidly deteriorating ties early in the year, following the US downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.
But in remarks on Saturday, Mr Wang cautioned that the road to the summit would not be a smooth one and travelling there would not be on “autopilot”, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
He was speaking after a discussion with members of the US strategic community in Washington, the ministry said.
In September, China’s top security agency suggested any Xi-Biden meeting in San Francisco hinged on the US “showing sufficient sincerity”.
Mr Wang said China and the US needed to “return to Bali”, referring to the last meeting between Mr Biden and Mr Xi, on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit on the Indonesian resort island in November 2022, where they discussed Taiwan, competition and communication.
Washington and Beijing must put into practice the consensus achieved then, “remove interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus and gather outcomes”, Mr Wang added.
He said both sides have jointly sent out positive signals to stabilise and improve relations, believing it is useful and necessary to maintain dialogue even as there are still various differences and contradictions, as well as issues to be resolved.
Saturday’s discussions included in-depth exchanges on the interaction between China and US militaries, finance, science and technology, China’s investment environment and market access, as well as the Middle East and Ukraine crises. REUTERS
