By Michael Martina
MANILA, July 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday he talked a lot during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi about a planned trip to the United States by President Xi Jinping.
Meeting with Wang in Manila on the sidelines of a regional gathering led by the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, Rubio told reporters that both sides had differences, but their job was to manage them, adding there were areas of potential cooperation.
President Donald Trump has said a summit with Xi could take place at the end of September.
Their meeting comes amid a fragile truce between the world’s biggest economies that could be complicated by President Donald Trump’s accusations of Chinese meddling in U.S. elections, which Beijing has called “pure fabrication”.
Rubio said the allegations of election interference were not discussed with Wang.
Tense U.S.-China relations have been more stable under a temporary trade truce reached by Trump and Xi in October. The two leaders met in May in Beijing. China has not confirmed Xi’s visit to Washington.
Trade issues with China were discussed, Rubio said, as well as the bilateral Board of Trade, adding that it was important both countries can talk irrespective of differences.
The meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations comes at a time of global instability, with the war in the Middle East disrupting global trade and creating economic strains across Asia.
Rubio said nothing China had done had changed the trajectory of the conflict, though he said Beijing had in some cases been cooperative on Iran.
(Reporting by Michael Martina; Additional reporting by Mikhail Flores; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by David Stanway)
Comments