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Blinken stresses need for better US-Chinese communications
Updated On: 17 June, 2023 12:52 PM IST | Washington | AP
Blinken was to leave Washington late Friday for meetings with senior Chinese leaders on Sunday and Monday
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint news conference with Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan at the U.S. Department of State on June 16, 2023 in Washington, DC. Blinken is scheduled to travel to Beijing this weekend in his first trip to China in the Biden administration. Pic/AFP
Shortly before setting out for Beijing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday emphasized the importance of the U.S. and China establishing better lines of communication. He will be the highest-ranking member of the Biden administration to visit China. The U.S. wants to make sure "that the competition we have with China doesn`t veer into conflict" due to avoidable misunderstandings, Blinken told reporters in Washington.
Blinken, speaking alongside Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, said his China trip is the outgrowth of a meeting in Bali last year between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden. The two agreed that China and the United States, the world`s biggest two economies and increasingly top rivals for global influence, must maintain contacts and and take steps to avoid unintended conflicts. Blinken`s trip came within a day of happening in February but was delayed by the diplomatic and political tumult brought on by the discovery of what the U.S. says was a Chinese spy balloon flying across the United States.
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