The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s announcement that Wang would attend the meeting made no mention of a meeting with Blinken. A State Department announcement about Blinken’s Munich agenda said his focus would be on Ukraine, the Middle East and “transatlantic security.” Neither the State Department nor the Chinese embassy in Washington responded to requests for comment.
The agenda for the Blinken Wang meeting in Munich is also likely to include plans for a phone call between Biden and Xi in the coming months. A senior administration official read out the call between Sullivan and Wang in January, saying such a call would take place sometime “this spring,” but did not elaborate.
The upcoming meeting between Mr. Blinken and Mr. Wang will underline efforts by the United States and China to quell the resentment that has roiled relations over the past year. Relations between the two countries rapidly deteriorated after a Chinese reconnaissance balloon was spotted over the U.S. mainland in February 2023 and subsequently destroyed by a U.S. Air Force fighter jet.
Both sides sought to prevent a worsening of relations that have been severely strained by Chinese threats against Taiwan, rising tensions between Manila and China in the South China Sea, and Xi’s “unrestricted” partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin. , emphasizes the need to maintain open lines of communication. Potential Conflict.
The White House considers nine months of intensive engagement with the Chinese government a diplomatic success. In recent weeks, Biden administration officials have repeatedly touted how this assistance led to the creation of a U.S.-China counternarcotics task force, the resumption of bilateral military contacts, and an agreement to discuss the safe development of artificial intelligence. .