New Delhi, Mar 11
China’s top diplomats will hold a high-level strategic dialogue with their US counterparts in Alaska on March 18 and 19, the Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday.
The dialogue is taking place at the invitation of the US side, Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.
Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as well as US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will attend the meeting scheduled to be held in Anchorage.
Prime Minister Li Keqiang also said China and the US have extensive common interests, and that the two countries can cooperate with each other in many areas.
“China and the United States, as the world’s largest developing country and the largest developed country, will gain from cooperation but lose from confrontation,” Li told a press conference in Beijing, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
On Wednesday, the US State Department said Blinken and Sullivan will discuss a range of issues, including those where the US have deep disagreements with China.
“This is an important opportunity for us to lay out in very frank terms the many concerns that we have with Beijing’s actions and behavior that are challenging the security, prosperity and the values of the United States and our partners and allies,” Blinken told US lawmakers when he testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Relations between the world’s two leading economies are at their worst in decades as the?nations?clash over trade, 5G technology, human rights and regional security.
The White House said that it is important to hold the first US-China meeting under the Biden administration “on American soil.”
“We will also talk about areas where we can cooperate, of mutual interests,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.