As escalating tensions appeared to be relaxing a bit, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged for calm about Taiwan on Friday while meeting with his Chinese counterpart.
During their 90-minute meeting in New York, Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed Taiwan extensively and had discussions that a US official described as “very open.”
According to a State Department statement, Blinken “emphasized that maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is important to regional and global security and prosperity.”
He “discussed the need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the US-PRC relationship, especially during times of tension,” it added, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
A State Department official described the exchange on Taiwan as “direct and honest.”
The official said Blinken also renewed US warnings not to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, amid guarded US hopes that Beijing is taking a distance from Moscow, nominally its ally.
For the first time since the start of the war, Wang met with the foreign minister of Ukraine in New York. On Thursday, Wang highlighted the necessity for a ceasefire rather than his support for Russia in a Security Council meeting.
Blinken met Wang for the first time since a meeting in Bali in July, where both parties seemed hopeful for more stability despite the fact that his father had passed away the day before.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan a month later.
