Biden’s national security advisor met with China’s MNE

O meeting, in the last two days, took place on the island of Malta, the White House revealed in a statement, saying that Jake Sullivan, advisor to President Joe Biden, and the Chinese minister, Wang Yi, had “frank, substantive and constructive discussions”, in a a time when the world’s two largest economies try to “maintain open lines of communication”.

Sullivan and Wang discussed the relationship between the two countries, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Taiwan Strait issue, he detailed.

“The United States noted the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. The two sides committed to maintaining this strategic channel of communication and to pursuing additional high-level engagement and consultations in key areas between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in the coming months,” according to the statement.

Washington and Beijing are competitors, despite an extensive commercial partnership, and the relationship is full of pressures with episodes such as the downing, by US forces, of a “Chinese spy balloon” at the beginning of this year, the intrusion by the Chinese government in emails from the United States Secretary of Commerce, or Washington’s restriction on the export of advanced computer chips to China.

President Joe Biden recently spoke with Chinese Premier Li Qiang when they were in India at the Group of 20 summit, and said they talked about “stability” and “it was not at all confrontational.”

Biden has worked to strengthen relations with Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam and other countries to counterbalance China’s influence in the Pacific region.

Speaking to the press last Sunday, Biden said these alliances are not about a “cold war” with China.

“It’s not about containing China,” he said, “it’s about having a stable foundation” for global economic growth.

Sullivan also met with Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela and spoke about the role of the Mediterranean region in helping to provide “global peace and security”, according to a statement from the Maltese government.

Read Also: Biden included China on the list of countries with the largest drug production