United States: The United States has confirmed that top diplomat Mr. Antony Blinken will visit China, a long-anticipated trip that had been postponed in February amid rising tension between the two superpowers.

Mr. Blinken will become the highest-ranking Biden administration official to visit China on a trip that spans June 16 to 21 and will also include a visit to London, the Department of State remarked in a statement.

In Beijing, the US Secretary of State will meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the “importance of maintaining open lines of communication” between the US and China.

According to the statement, the top US diplomat “will also raise bilateral issues of concern, global and regional matters, and potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges.”

“We’re not going to Beijing with the intent of having some sort of breakthrough or transformation in the way that we deal with one another,” Mr. Daniel Kritenbrink, the Department of State’s top diplomat for East Asia, told reporters.

“We’re coming to Beijing with a realistic, confident approach and a sincere desire to manage our competition in the most responsible way possible,” Mr. Kritenbrink added.

In addition, White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Mr. Kurt Campbell stated that Mr. Blinken will focus on forwarding the “top line goals” of its agenda but will not seek “to produce a long list of deliverables”.

“I believe Secretary Blinken will advocate strongly that these lines of communication are necessary. They are how mature, strong militaries interact, and the stakes are just too high to avoid these critical lines of communication,” Mr. Campbell told reporters.

“Recently, Mr. Blinken spoke by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Mr. Qin Gang, stressing “the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage the relationship,” Department of State spokesman Mr. Matthew Miller said in a statement.

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