Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Hinting that the Sino-American bilateral relations have come to a halt, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the road to the proposed meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in November in San Francisco is “unlikely to be smooth.”
According to the media reports, Yi said the “road to the San Francisco Summit will not be a smooth one,” the foreign ministry said on Sunday, in a reference to an expected meeting between the two Presidents on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum Summit.
As part of preparations, Wang met President Biden and his top aides in Washington in recent days, agreeing to work toward the expected bilateral meeting.
A series of bilateral diplomatic engagements in recent months were held, largely at the US behest. They aimed at salvaging what were rapidly deteriorating ties early in 2023 following Washinton’s downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.
On Saturday, Wang cautioned the road to the bilateral summit would not be a smooth one and traveling there would not be on “autopilot,” the ministry said in a statement.
He was speaking after a discussion with the US strategic officials in Washington, the ministry said.
Last month, China’s top security agency suggested any Xi-Biden meeting in San Francisco depended on the US “showing sufficient sincerity.”
Wang said China and the US should “return to Bali,” referring to the last meeting between Biden and Xi, on the sidelines of a Group of 20 Summit on the Indonesian resort island in November 2022, where they discussed Taiwan, competition, and communication.
The two countries must put into practice the consensus achieved and then, “remove interference, overcome obstacles, enhance consensus and gather outcomes,” Wang said.
He said the two sides jointly sent out positive signals to stabilize and improve relations, believing it is useful and necessary to maintain dialogue even as there are still various differences and contradictions, and issues to be resolved.
Saturday’s discussions also included in-depth exchanges on the interaction between China and US militaries, finance, science and technology, China’s investment environment and market access, as well as the Middle East and Ukraine crises.