U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held talks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Monday, the latest in a series of high-level direct communications between Washington and Beijing as they weigh a summit of their leaders later this year despite numerous areas of disagreement.
"From the perspective of the United States, face-to-face diplomacy is the best way to deal with areas where we disagree, and also the best way to explore areas of cooperation between us," Blinken said after they sat down at the Chinese Mission to the United Nations in New York.
"The world expects us to responsibly manage our relationship. The United States is committed to doing just that," he told Han.
The meeting took place on the fringes of the annual U.N. General Assembly, a day after the two governments said U.S. President Joe Biden's top national security aide Jake Sullivan and China's highest-ranking diplomat Wang Yi had hours of what they called "candid, substantive and constructive" discussions.
Han, who spoke first in Chinese, said other countries are longing for "steady and sound" Sino-U.S. relations, as such an improvement would benefit "the world at large" and not only the two countries.
But he noted that their bilateral ties now face "various difficulties and challenges," saying both sides need to display "sincerity, work in the same direction, and make common efforts."
As Han's current position is largely a ceremonial role in China, it is likely that Blinken did not have discussions as substantive as Sullivan's over the weekend in the Mediterranean island nation of Malta.
A senior Biden administration official said Sunday that Sullivan and Wang, who was initially expected to represent China in New York during this week's high-level engagements, had about 12 hours of talks for two days on various issues.
The topics ranged from Chinese military actions around Taiwan, which Beijing claims its own, and Russia's war against Ukraine to emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and people-to-people exchanges, according to the official, who briefed reporters on the two-day meeting on condition of anonymity.
Biden has repeatedly said he hopes to set up a one-on-one meeting with Xi by the end of this year, with U.S. officials eyeing the upcoming summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in November in San Francisco as a potential chance to bring the two leaders together.
