What’s new: Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Bangkok in the coming days while in Thailand for an official visit set to run until Monday, China’s foreign ministry announced Friday.
The two men will meet Friday and Saturday, according to a White House statement, which said the meetings demonstrate the “commitment by both sides … to maintain strategic communication and responsibly manage the relationship.”
Sullivan is expected to discuss with Wang the Houthi militant groups’ recent attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, among other topics, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, quoting U.S. officials.
The background: Wang and Sullivan met at least three times in 2023, twice in the second half of the year — one in Washington in late October and another in Malta in September — as the two sides worked to arrange a meeting between the two countries’ presidents, which took place in California in November.
The two diplomats also met in May in Vienna to “remove the hurdles” to rebuilding the relationship between the world’s two largest economies after tensions grew at the beginning of 2023.
Regarding the Israel-Hamas war-linked attacks in the Red Sea, China called for a “halt to the harassment and attacks on civilian ships,” while stating the priority is to “end the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said last week.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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