US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told a senior Chinese diplomats at a meeting in Vienna this week that Washington is “looking to move beyond” tensions spurred by a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the continental US, a senior official in the administration of US President Joe Biden said.
The meeting between Sullivan and Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅) was not publicized by Washington or Beijing ahead of the talks on Wednesday and Thursday in the Austrian capital.
The White House described the wide-ranging discussions, in which the two leaders spent more than eight hours together, as “candid” and “constructive.”
Photo: AFP
The administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting, said that both sides recognize that February incident was ”unfortunate” and are now looking to “re-establish standard, normal channels of communications.”
The talks are the latest in a series of small signs that tensions could be easing between the world’s two biggest economies.
As the political and military rivalry between Beijing and Washington intensifies, US officials and analysts are worried that a lack of reliable crisis communications could cause a minor confrontation to spiral into greater hostilities.
They cite the ability to communicate with the former Soviet Union as allowing the Cold War to end without a nuclear exchange.
The White House in a statement said the meeting was part of “ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition,” and that Sullivan and Wang discussed Taiwan, key issues in the US-China relationship, Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and more.
The meeting took place in a luxury hotel along Vienna’s historical Ringstrasse, an Austrian official familiar with the matter said.
The Austrian official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said planning for the meeting was closely guarded and Austrian authorities were only given a few days’ advance notice that Vienna was chosen for the talks.
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