China’s Wang Yi Meets Top EU Diplomat and UK Foreign Secretary
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell on Friday evening. He is also expected to meet British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Neither the US nor Chinese side immediately released statements on the meeting.
The flurry of diplomatic activity underpins a relative thaw in China’s ties with the US in recent months, following a high-profile summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in California in November.
Wang also held extensive talks with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in Bangkok last month.
China to champion ‘equal and orderly multipolar world’ at Munich security forum
“Both countries are trying to manage the relationship more effectively than they have before precisely because they want to avoid ‘lose-lose’,” said Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group consultancy, on the sidelines of the summit.
Friday was the first day of the Munich Security Conference, which was overshadowed by the announced death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a maximum-security prison in the Arctic Circle.
A series of Western officials condemned Moscow over Navalny’s death. Harris said that Washington was “working to confirm” the news, adding: “Whatever story they tell, let us be clear, Russia is responsible.”
Navalny’s wife, Yulia, took the stage immediately after Harris, just hours after the news of her husband’s death appeared in Russian media. She drew a standing ovation from the gathered leaders.
In Friday’s debates, China played second fiddle to the geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine, and the coming US elections.
“We know that China still exists, but suddenly we don’t talk about China … it is clear that China, the big elephant in the room, is not at the epicenter of our concerns,” Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said on the sidelines of the summit.
“TV screens are full of people being killed or wounded. Destruction is much more appealing to the eyes than a theory on economic security, or China’s expansion in the South China Sea. But these events continue … and sooner or later, it will be another crisis,” he added.
Harris, meanwhile, used her speech to reassure allies that Biden would remain committed to the Nato transatlantic alliance and Ukraine, should he win re-election in November.
Former US President Donald Trump, Biden’s likely Republican opponent, has said in recent days that he would not defend a Nato ally if Russia attacked it. Harris dismissed that “world view” as “dangerous, destabilizing and indeed short-sighted”, implying that it would embolden China.
Biden blasts Trump’s ‘dumb’ and ‘dangerous’ Nato threats
“Imagine if we went easy on Putin, let alone encouraged him. History offers a clue if we stand by while an oppressor invades its neighbor with impunity, they will keep going. And in the case of Putin, that means all of Europe would be threatened,” Harris said.
“If we fail to impose severe consequences on Russia, other authoritarians across the globe would be emboldened. Because you see, they would be watching – they are watching and drawing lessons,” she added.
