WASHINGTON – United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke with incoming Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang over the phone on Sunday, after China last week appointed its ambassador to the United States to be its new foreign minister.

Mr Blinken said on Twitter that he discussed the US-China relationship and maintaining open lines of communication in his phone call with Mr Qin.

China last Friday appointed Mr Qin, its ambassador to the US and a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, to be its new foreign minister, as Beijing and Washington seek to stabilise rocky relations.

China’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the two spoke by phone.

In a statement on its website on Monday, the ministry said Mr Qin bid farewell to Mr Blinken during the call, while adding that he looked forward to maintaining close working ties with Mr Blinken and promoting Sino-US relations.

Mr Qin, 56, replaces Mr Wang Yi, who had been foreign minister for almost the past decade.

Mr Wang, 69, was promoted to the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and is expected to play a bigger role in Chinese foreign policy.

Though Mr Qin sounded optimistic about US-China relations during his relatively brief, 17-month stint as ambassador in Washington – his predecessor had held the post for eight years – his tenure nonetheless coincided with deteriorating ties between the two superpowers.

Mr Wang’s stint as foreign minister saw a sharp rise in tensions between Beijing and Washington on a wide range of issues, ranging from trade to Taiwan. REUTERS