Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned visit to the United States in September was among the key topics discussed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Manila, Report informs, citing the South China Morning Post.
The talks between Rubio and Wang, held on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, lasted about 1.5 hours.
Rubio said the sides discussed preparations for Xi's upcoming visit to Washington, as well as areas of cooperation that could help lay the groundwork for successful talks during the visit.
"Right now, we need to identify exactly what those areas are in order to lay the foundation for a very positive visit. We talked a lot about that," the secretary of state said.
He noted that differences remained between Washington and Beijing, but both sides intended to work on resolving them and look for ways to cooperate.
Wang, for his part, stressed the need to follow the agreements reached by the leaders of the two countries, remove obstacles in bilateral relations and ensure the practical implementation of the consensus reached.
In addition to preparations for Xi's visit, the sides discussed the situation in the South China Sea, including the recent incident between China and the Philippines near Second Thomas Shoal, the US-Iran conflict and US arms supplies to Taiwan.
The report noted that amid the escalation in the Middle East, China does not support any fees or restrictions on global shipping through international waterways.
Commenting on US arms supplies to Taiwan, Rubio said Washington was continuing an internal review of possible deliveries, taking into account the state of its own stockpiles and the production capacity of the defense industry.
The US secretary of state also described Monday's clash between Beijing and Manila as highly negative and beneficial to no one.