Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held wide-ranging talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on October 27.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Joe Biden has emphasised that the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication as he met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ahead of a potential meeting with President Xi Jinping next month to reset bilateral ties.

President Biden met Wang at the White House on October 27 after the top Chinese diplomat held wide-ranging talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Wang’s visit is expected to lay the groundwork for a potential meeting between Mr. Biden and Chinese President Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in San Francisco in mid-November.

“The President emphasised that both the United States and China need to manage competition in the relationship responsibly and maintain open lines of communication. He underscored that the United States and China must work together to address global challenges,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting between Mr. Biden and Wang.

Mr. Sullivan and Wang had candid, constructive, and substantive discussions on key issues in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, the Israel-Hamas conflict, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and cross-Strait issues, among other topics, said the National Security Council in a readout of the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr. Sullivan discussed concerns over China’s dangerous and unlawful actions in the South China Sea. He raised the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Also read: View From India | Dispute in the South China Sea

China views Taiwan as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force. China has been conducting provocative military exercises around the self-ruled island.

“The two sides reaffirmed their desire to maintain this strategic channel of communication and to pursue additional high-level diplomacy, including working together towards a meeting between President Biden and President Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November,” said the readout.

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said Mr. Blinken and Wang discussed a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues, including addressing areas of difference as well as exploring areas of cooperation.

“The Secretary reiterated that the United States will continue to stand up for our interests and values and those of our allies and partners,” he said.

The relationship between the world’s two largest economies began to deteriorate during the Trump administration. In 2018, former President Donald Trump signed an executive memorandum that would impose retaliatory tariffs on up to $60 billion in Chinese imports.

The U.S. and China have one of the world’s most important and complex bilateral relationships. Since 1949, the countries have experienced periods of both tension and cooperation over issues including trade, climate change, the South China Sea, Taiwan and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden administration has sought to re-establish normal diplomatic ties with China after an incredibly fraught period, most notably over the Chinese surveillance balloon incident in February.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The United Nations (UN) nuclear chief on September 18 said he asked to meet Iran’s President on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to try to reverse Tehran’s “uncalled for” ban on “a very sizable chunk” of the agency’s inspectors.

Rafael Grossi stressed that the Iranian government’s removal of many agency cameras and electronic monitoring systems installed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also make it impossible to give assurances about the country’s nuclear programme.

Mr. Grossi said he wrote to President Ebrahim Raisi telling him it is “very important” to meet about Tehran’s targeting of inspectors, including “some of the best and most experienced”.

“I’m waiting for an answer,” Mr. Grossi said in an interview with The Associated Press on September 18.

He also warned that escalating fighting is increasing the danger of a nuclear accident at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine. Mr. Grossi said he is seeking to re-establish a dialogue with North Korea, which expelled UN nuclear weapons inspectors in 2009.

And he invited China to see how the IAEA tests treated water released from Japan’s Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, which led Beijing to ban Japanese seafood.

The IAEA chief said Iran has the right to determine who enters the country, but he said he didn’t understand why Tehran was withdrawing authorisation for a “good number” of inspectors, which is “making my job much more difficult”. He called it a step in the wrong direction.

“It’s very difficult to get the expertise to go to very sophisticated uranium enrichment facilities with thousands of (centrifuge) cascades, lots of tubing and piping, and it requires … a lot of experience,” he explained. “So, when you start limiting that … I have to say, this is not good. Stop it!” Iran has denied impeding the work of IAEA inspectors though it has also been years since its experts have been able to examine surveillance footage.

The Vienna-based IAEA reported earlier this month that Iran had slowed the pace of enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels. That was seen as a sign that Tehran was trying to ease tensions after years of strain with the United States, and one that took place as the rivals were negotiating a prisoner swap and the release of billions in frozen Iranian assets — which all took place on Monday.

Since Iran started limiting the actions of IAEA inspectors a little over a year ago, Mr. Grossi said, the agency hasn’t been able to see how many centrifuges and parts needed to assemble them are being produced.

So when the IAEA has to draw a baseline of where Iran’s nuclear programme is, he said, “How do I do it?” Mr. Grossi said military operations are increasing near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is on the front line of the Ukrainian counter-offensive. The June 6 destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in Russian-controlled territory led to deadly flooding, ruined crops in one of the world’s breadbaskets and lowered the level of water used to cool Zaporizhzhia’s reactors.

“Complications are adding up,” Mr. Grossi said, “and making the safety of the plant very, very fragile.” Initially, he said he urged both sides to adopt a no-fire zone outside the plant. That became impossible. So he has been urging the Ukrainians and Russians not to attack any nuclear plant.

Zaporizhzhia is in a Russian-controlled area but is staffed mainly by Ukrainians. There are also some Russian experts and IAEA inspectors who from time to time have acted as “a buffer” and defused some tense situations, Mr. Grossi said.

The IAEA chief called North Korea’s growing nuclear programme “one of the most difficult issues we have in front of us”.

Since the expulsion of IAEA inspectors in 2009, Mr. Grossi said, the agency has followed what Pyongyang has done from afar. “North Korea has become a de facto nuclear weapon possessor state,” he said, and that is “not a good development”.

Mr. Grossi said North Korea’s programme, including enrichment and construction of new reactors, has been growing without international monitoring or assessment of its safety. He wouldn’t say who the IAEA is engaging with to try to “turn the page” with North Korea but did say: “I am optimistic.” As for China’s concerns about the water being discharged from Japan’s Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, Mr. Grossi said IAEA daily monitoring shows the level of tritium, a radionucleide that could be problematic, is extremely low.

The IAEA chief said South Korea also had concerns about the water being discharged from Fukushima, which was damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011. He said he spoke to the President and Foreign Minister, and South Korea sent experts to see how the monitoring of the discharged water is being carried out.

Mr. Grossi said he wrote to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi a few days ago making a similar offer to explain the IAEA’s activities. He expressed hope that he could meet Wang in New York “to dispel doubts.” said Mr. Grossi: “I’m eager and available.”

Washington:

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi over the weekend, officials said Sunday, in the latest effort to ease tensions between the superpowers.

Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi met in the Mediterranean island nation of Malta on Saturday and Sunday, the White House said.

“This meeting was part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the relationship,” a statement said.

President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have not talked or met since a summit in Bali last year but US officials say they are working to renew contact between the two leaders.

A string of high-level US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, have met recently with Chinese officials to prepare a possible Xi-Biden meeting.

The White House said Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi “committed to maintain this strategic channel of communication and to pursue additional high-level engagement.”

A Chinese government statement on the Malta meeting largely echoed the US version, saying “the two sides conducted candid, substantive and constructive strategic communication.”

Wang Yi brought up the issue of Taiwan — a self-governing, democratic island that China claims but which also receives strong US support — as a “red line that cannot be crossed in Sino-US relations.”

“The United States noted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” according to the White House readout.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)