Hopes for improved ties as meetings stepped up

Vice President Han Zheng was to meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York yesterday.

The meeting, on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly, follows two-day talks between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and national security adviser Jake Sullivan on a possible meeting of their leaders and communication channels between the world's biggest economies.

The meeting in Malta, which ended on Sunday, came at a critical time in US-China relations, with Wang starting his visit to Moscow yesterday for talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

While other world leaders and their aides are heading for the UN General Assembly, Wang and President Xi Jinping will be skipping it.

The Malta meetings were aimed to make sure that Xi and President Joe Biden were positioned to meet at the APEC summit in San Francisco in November, said people familiar with China's preparations. Both sides have an interest in stabilizing ties at the moment: China's leaders are focused on the country's economic downturn, while US leaders may hope for stable ties ahead of next year's presidential election.

Still, the chances for any fundamental improvement in ties is slim, the sources said, adding that the relations remains tense.

Wang took over as foreign minister - a post he previously held - after Xi unexpectedly ousted his predecessor, Qin Gang.

The disappearances of Qin, who has not been seen in public since June 25, and defense minister Li Shangfu, who the US believes was removed from his post, did not come up during the discussion, a senior administrative official said.

Sullivan and Wang discussed high-level engagements and committed to consultations on political and security developments in the Asia-Pacific, as well as maritime and arms-control issues and a policy planning consultation.

Meanwhile, Wang is expected to lay the groundwork for Russian President Vladimir Putin's possible visit to Beijing next month for the third Belt and Road Forum. Putin attended the first two Belt and Road Forums in 2017 and 2019.