US, China set for high-level talks to avert South China Sea clashes
- Mike Pompeo and James Mattis to host China’s Yang Jiechi and Wei Fenghe in Washington on Friday
- Dialogue intended to reduce friction after tensions at sea and cancelled meeting in September
The US and China will hold a second round of high-level diplomatic and security talks in Washington on Friday in a show of willingness for the two sides to continue communications amid rising tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis will host Yang Jiechi, China’s director of the Office of Foreign Affairs, and its Minister of National Defence Wei Fenghe for the dialogue, along with further delegations on both sides.
The talks come as tensions between the two nations run high. An earlier discussion scheduled in September between the two defence ministers was cancelled because of Beijing’s frustration over Washington’s sanctioning of China for buying a Russian weapons system.
The announcement of fresh dialogue indicates that the two sides have been willing to reduce the risk of miscalculation with tensions high in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
In the past two months, the US military has flown B-52 bombers and conducted “freedom of navigation” operations in the vicinity of the South China Sea, and US warships sailed through the Taiwan Strait in support of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing views as a renegade province.