U.S. State Department official: Blinken and Wang Yi not planning talks at G20 next week

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi are not planning to meet during next week’s Group of 20 (G20) foreign ministers meeting, State Department officials said June 23. Earlier, the Financial Times reported the news and said that China and the United States are discussing face-to-face arrangements.

The Financial Times reported earlier that the Biden administration has also informed Beijing that the U.S. wants Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to visit China this summer, and that the White House has held preliminary internal discussions about sending Blinken or national security adviser Jake Sullivan to China later this year. The visit may be in for Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, held in Rome in late October during the G20 summit, the two men summit, prearranged.

A State Department official responded that Blinken and Wang had no plans to meet during the upcoming G20 foreign ministers’ meeting; the official had no comment on the rest of the Financial Times report. Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the German Marshall Fund, a Washington think tank, said she heard from sources that after Blinken’s meeting with Wang Yi, Blinken may have a phone call with Xi Jinping, followed by a State Department official’s visit to China this summer. The White House did not immediately respond to the report.