Dialogue With Chinese Foreign Minister Blinken Agrees To Continue Discussion On North Korea And Central Timor

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a meeting in Germany. (Photo: Twitter/X/@SecBlinken)

JAKARTA - United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has discussed with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Munich, Germany, Friday night. Both agreed that senior officials should continue their discussions on North Korea and the Middle East.

As an "honest and constructive discussion" with Wang, reported by ANTARA, February 17, Blinken also expressed concern over China's support for Russia's aggression against Ukraine and stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as in the South China Sea, according to the department's main spokesman, Matthew Miller.

The first meeting since October between the two foreign ministers took place on the sidelines of a security conference in the German city, where the two countries agreed to hold higher-level communications more frequently.

Miller indicated Blinken's talks with Wang were centered on regional issues, but did not go into details, for example, about what their top officials would talk about North Korea or the situation in the Middle East.

With Ukraine's war entering its third year, Blinken expressed concern over China's support for the Russian defense industry base, Miller said. But he provided little information on other topics discussed by the two top diplomats.

Blinken emphasized that the US will continue to defend its interests and values as well as the interests of its allies.

Despite prolonged tensions over issues including Taiwan's future, human rights, and trade restrictions, the US and China have sought to manage differences and cooperate as much as possible responsibly.

Meanwhile, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Wang held discussions for more than 12 hours in two days last month in Thailand, with issues discussed covering military-to-military communications, artificial intelligence security, Taiwan's future, and attacks on shipments in the Red Sea by Iran-backed Houthis.

This is the first direct meeting of senior officials of the two countries since Taiwan's presidential election in mid-January, which Lai Ching-te won from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and subject to independence.

Following their talks in Bangkok, a senior US administration official said President Joe Biden and Chinese partner Xi Jinping are expected to hold phone talks this spring.

Blinken's meeting with Wang on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference is also meant to follow up on the summit of US and Chinese presidents near San Francisco in November.

Biden and Xi at the time agreed to reopen military-to-military communication lines at several levels and work together on transnational challenges such as eradicating narcotics to help grow trust among these geopolitical rivals.

Since then, despite differences of opinion over various political and economic issues, the United States and China have gradually taken steps to restart cooperation whenever possible.

In late January, they launched a working group to help stop exports of fentanyl materials, which sparked a deadly drug crisis in the United States.

The two countries also plan to start a dialogue this spring on the use of safe artificial intelligence.