US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe met on Tuesday (11.22.2022) in Cambodia amidstThe attempt by both powers to limit their rivalry.
The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of a conference of defense ministers in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap, is the first between the two since June.
Shortly after, in August, the visit of the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan triggered tension in relations between the two powers.
Furious over the trip to this self-governing territory it calls its own, Beijing launched large-scale military maneuvers around the island, which was surrounded for a week by Chinese ships and warplanes.
Since then, both sides have tried to cool down with meetings last week between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart, Joe Biden, and later with Vice President Kamala Harris.
After this meeting in Bangkok, Harris repeated the message previously sent by Biden that it was necessary keep “the lines of communication open to responsibly manage the competition” between the two countries.
For his part, Xi told Harris that the meeting with Biden days earlier at the G20 summit in Indonesia was “strategic and constructive and has significant importance in guiding China-US relations into the next stage,” state media reported.
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Source: La Opinion
