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China’s Wang Yi to US climate envoy: don’t let protectionism, ‘security’ block cooperation
Washington’s top climate diplomat visits Beijing for talks as US President Joe Biden seeks to engage China before leaving the White House
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China’s top diplomat Wang Yi urged Washington not to let overbroad definitions of national security stand in the way of climate change cooperation as he met visiting US climate envoy John Podesta.
“Climate change dialogue and cooperation are not only an integral part of China-US relations, but also an important measure to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state at their meeting in San Francisco,” Wang said, according to a foreign ministry statement on Friday night.
He added that since the beginning of the year, climate change teams from both countries had been in close communication and achieved “practical cooperation results”.
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“[We] hope that the US will maintain policy stability, earnestly respect China’s legitimate concerns, and avoid protectionism and overstretching the concept of security.”
The three-day climate talks in Beijing were part of efforts by the rival powers to stabilise ties by tackling issues of common interest, a consensus reached by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden when they met in San Francisco last November.
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The US and China have held a few rounds of climate talks since former climate envoys John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua agreed last year to revive a working group on climate change cooperation.
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