Senior US and Chinese officials are to meet in Rome on Monday, the White House announced on Sunday. US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is due to meet Yang Jiechi, the Chinese Communist Party’s top official for diplomacy.
The two officials and their teams “will discuss ongoing efforts to manage the competition between our two countries and discuss the impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on regional and global security,” said Emily Horne, the spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, in the statement.
Possible aid from China to Russia in the US viewfinder
“We are closely monitoring the extent to which China provides, in one way or another, whether material or economic, assistance to Russia,” Jake Sullivan said on CNN on Sunday, adding that “it is a concern for us”. “And we have made it clear to Beijing that we will not stand by and let any country compensate for Russia’s losses due to economic sanctions,” imposed since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, a he added. “There will absolutely be consequences in the event of significant actions aimed at circumventing the sanctions”, warned Jake Sullivan.
The talks scheduled for Monday in Rome, Italy, “are part of our ongoing efforts to maintain an open line of communication” between China and the United States, Emily Horne said in the statement. A similar meeting between these two senior officials took place in October in Switzerland.