FM Wang to meet senior US official

The latest round of talks between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will be a tone-setting occasion that will help manage China-US relations more effectively and maintain the current momentum of high-level exchanges going forward in the new year, observers said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday that the foreign minister will meet with Sullivan in Bangkok, Thailand, during his visit to the Southeast Asian country from Friday to Monday.

"Wang will state China's position on Sino-US relations and the Taiwan question, among other issues, and exchange views with the US side on international and regional issues of common concern," the spokesman told reporters at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

The White House National Security Council said in a statement that the two-day meeting, which starts on Friday, continues the commitment made by both sides at the November summit in San Francisco between US President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping to maintain strategic communication.

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, said the two sides are expected to have in-depth discussions on a wide range of issues concerning their respective core interests during the Bangkok meeting.

Noting that both Wang and Sullivan are representatives trusted by their respective leaders, Li said their meeting, which serves as an authoritative channel of communication between the two sides, will help secure the guidance of the China-US relationship at the top level.

Wang and Sullivan had held several rounds of talks last year. During their last meeting in October in Washington, a month before the Xi-Biden Summit, the two sides had substantive and constructive strategic discussions on Sino-US relations, high-level exchanges between the two countries, the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict and other issues of mutual interest and concern.

Li said that the Palestine-Israel conflict and the Red Sea crisis could be topics raised this time as Washington urgently hopes to work with Beijing to ease the current tense situation.

"If the US needs China in the Red Sea, it's important that Washington shows its sincerity by respecting issues concerning China's core interests such as the Taiwan question so as to meet each other half way and create the conditions for the steady development of bilateral ties," he said.

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn