10:08, 9 June 2023

YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to travel to Beijing as soon as next week, POLITICO reported citing two people familiar with the scheduling.

The trip will mark the highest-level visit of a U.S. official to China since that of then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2018.

The Biden administration has been working to renew high-level diplomatic and military communication following a near breakdown over the Chinese spy balloon incident in February. Blinken had originally been scheduled to visit China few days later and postponed because of the rancor over the balloon.

Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden predicted a “thaw” in U.S.-China relations. Within days, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao had flown to the U.S. for meetings with Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. But Beijing’s denial of a request by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet with his counterpart Li Shangfu at the Shangri La Dialogue defense summit in Singapore suggested that bilateral ties remained tenuous, according to POLITICO.