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Red Sea attacks: no official mention after US-China talks but progress ‘likely’ to have been made, observers say
- Expected mention of Houthi attacks in key maritime corridor missing from official statements issued after Wang Yi and Jake Sullivan meet in Bangkok
- Analyst says issue is ‘too important to avoid’ but ‘too sensitive to mention given the stakeholders involved’
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When Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan opened two days of talks in Bangkok on Friday, it was expected that Beijing would be urged to use its influence over Iran to rein in the Houthi militia in the Red Sea.
The Yemen-based rebel group backed by Iran has launched drone and missile attacks on cargo ships in the key maritime corridor since November, in what it says is a response to Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
The Wang-Sullivan meetings came amid a spike in the conflict, as the US and its allies launched fresh attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen, and the rebel group stepped up its attacks.
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But official statements from either side made no mention of the issue.
The White House statement said only that the two leaders held “candid, substantive and constructive discussions on global and regional issues”, including “Russia’s war against Ukraine [and] the Middle East”.
03:21
US-led coalition strikes Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen
US-led coalition strikes Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen
The meeting was “part of the effort to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition in the relationship as directed by the leaders”, the statement said, in a reference to a long-planned presidential summit in November that kicked off a reset process after prolonged bilateral acrimony.
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