China: Mr. John Kerry, the United States’s envoy on climate, has held talks with China’s top diplomat Mr. Wang Yi in Beijing, calling for cooperation to address global warming and to redefine the troubled diplomatic relations between the world’s two biggest greenhouse gas emitters.
The US envoy told Mr. Wang that climate talks could provide a new start between the countries, which have been disturbed over issues including trade, technology, and the self-governed island of Taiwan.
“Our hope is that this can be the beginning of a new definition of cooperation and capacity to resolve differences between us,” Mr. Kerry told the Chinese diplomat in the meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
“We are very hopeful that this can be the beginning not just of a conversation between you and me on the climate track but that we can begin to change the broader relationship,” the US envoy noted.
Mr. Kerry is the third senior US official in recent weeks to travel to China for meetings with their counterparts there, after Secretary of State Mr. Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Ms. Janet Yellen.
According to Mr. Kerry, Mr. Biden was “very committed to stability within this relationship but also to achieving efforts together that can make a significant difference to the world.”
“From experience, if we work at it, we can find the path again in ways that resolve these challenges. The world is really looking to us for that leadership, particularly on the climate issue,” the US envoy added.
For his part, Mr. Wang described Mr. Kerry as “my old friend,” saying they have “worked together to solve a series of problems between both sides.”
The Chinese diplomat praised Mr. Kerry and his Chinese counterpart, Mr. Xie Zhenzhua, for their “hard work” during the 12 hours of talks they held in a Beijing Hotel.
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