US-China shares deeply complicated, consequential relationship: Blinken

The United States has a very deeply complicated and consequential relationship with China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday, adding that engagement between the two countries is the key.

He also said that it is in the interest of the US and China to establish and strengthen their lines of communication -- something that the rest of the world "expects us to do".

"What we have communicated to our colleagues in the government in Beijing is the importance from our perspective in engagement, precisely because we have a deeply complicated and also consequential relationship that is important to people in the United States and China," Blinken told reporters at a news conference along with his British counterpart Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

 

"But beyond that around the world; that our two presidents agreed when they met in Bali at the end of last year that it would be important to establish and strengthen our lines of communication; and that we believe that that's in our interests and also something that the rest of the world expects us to do because there's an expectation that we will responsibly manage the relationship," he said.

"And precisely because we have profound differences as well as, I believe, some responsibility not only to manage those differences so that the competition that we have doesn't veer into conflict, but also the potential where it's in our mutual interest and where it answers needs that the world has as well to find areas of cooperation, that engagement's the way that we try to pursue both of those responsibilities," Blinken said.

China was one of the major topics of discussion between the two leaders. "When it comes to key issues like ensuring peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, as well as looking for ways to cooperate with China where we can work together to solve big challenges. That's what people around the world expect from great powers, and it's in our collective interest," he said.

"I think it's also important to note that even as we focused today, as we do, on Ukraine, on some of the challenges represented by our respective relationships with China, we equally focused on a much broader agenda and that is the needs, the concerns, the imperatives for people around the world as they deal, and as we deal with the impact of climate change, food insecurity as I've already mentioned energy insecurity, global health, trying to provide for more inclusive economic growth through work that we and partners in the G7, as we're preparing for the leaders' meeting of the G7, can help advance and support. That agenda is very much the focus of both the United Kingdom and the United States," Blinken said.

Cleverly said he recognizes the role that China has in world affairs and how they respond to China's action will, of course, be an ongoing part of the bilateral discussions.

"I recently gave a major speech on the UK's posture towards China, which was derived from our recent integrated review refresh. We made the point that we need to defend ourselves as nations the UK is doing this, as indeed the United States of America is against inappropriate activities by China. We also need to make sure that we build alliances and strengthen the pre-existing alliances that we have, as I'm doing today with the United States of America, but also with our friends in the Indo-Pacific region," he said.

"We have to engage with China directly, robustly, regularly, to seek to influence the decisions that are made in Beijing and do so in a way that benefits the whole world, whether that be on the maintenance of peace across the Taiwan Strait, which of course is something which affects all of us irrespective of where we are in the world, to issues such as climate change, pandemic prevention and response," Cleverly said.