US National Security Advisor and China’s Foreign Minister hold meeting in Bangkok

Asia-Pacific, News, US January 30, 2024 , by IRIA No Comments

United States National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Bangkok on January 26-27, 2024.

The meeting between the two high-level officials was a follow-up to the Woodside Summit between President Biden and President Xi last November.

Beijing and Washington have been experiencing tensions on various contentious issues, including technology, trade, human rights, the Taiwan issue, and conflicting claims in the South China Sea. However, there has been a degree of stabilization in relations since the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November. Both sides characterized the talks as a partially successful diplomatic encounter.

The recent meeting between Wang and Sullivan also addressed the same issues discussed by the leadership of the two countries. The two officials “had candid, substantive and fruitful strategic communication on implementing the consensus reached at the San Francisco meeting, and on properly handling important and sensitive issues in China-US relations”, a statement on China’s foreign ministry website said following the meeting.

Military cooperation

The statement added that the two sides will work to set up a call between President Biden and President Xi Jinping in the coming days. According to a White House statement, the two sides recognized recent progress in resuming military-to-military communication and noted the importance of maintaining these channels.

The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Brown, held a virtual meeting with his Chinese counterpart and People’s Liberation Army General Liu Zhenli, on December 21, 2024. The virtual meeting, dubbed Defense Policy Coordination Talks, was meant to pave the way for military cooperation between the two sides.

*^{Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meeting with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Bangkok, Thailand. (Image Credit: Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs)}*

The statement added that they both delegations advanced in cooperation on counternarcotics issues, including the launch of the U.S.-China Counternarcotics Working Group on January 30. The two sides also discussed global and regional issues, including those related to Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Middle East, DPRK, the South China Sea, and Burma.

Taiwan issue

This was the first high-level diplomatic interaction between China and the U.S. following the Taiwan elections. Washington and Beijing had been closely overseeing the election outcomes from the self-governed island. The Democratic Progressive Party, which dismisses China’s territorial claim to the island, successfully secured a third term but failed to acquire the same number of votes as its previous terms.

In his meeting with Sullivan, Wang emphasized that Taiwan constitutes “China’s internal affair,” and the regional election in Taiwan cannot alter the fundamental reality that Taiwan is an integral part of China, as reported by the foreign ministry.

The statement added that the primary threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is the “Taiwan independence” movement, which also poses the most significant challenge to China-U.S. relations.