Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called on China and the United States to “eliminate misunderstandings and coexist peacefully” in Beijing on Wednesday during a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu.
According to a statement issued by the Chinese Defense Ministry, Kissinger said that in today’s world, challenges and opportunities coexist, and that Beijing and Washington should “avoid confrontation.”
The veteran US politician said he hopes the two powers will do everything possible to achieve positive results in the development of the bilateral relationship, so as to safeguard world peace and stability.
“History and facts have repeatedly shown that the United States and China cannot afford to treat each other as opponents,” he stressed.
According to the same note, Li Shangfu said that people around the world hope that China and the US will “assume their responsibilities” as great countries and “jointly uphold global prosperity and stability.”
The minister, subject to US sanctions since 2018 for the purchase of military equipment from Russia, urged the US to work with China to “implement the consensus reached by the leaders of both countries and promote a healthy and stable development of relations Between both”. countries and their respective armies”.
Kissinger’s unannounced visit coincides with the presence in China of the US Special Envoy for Climate Affairs, John Kerry, who was also Secretary of State from 2013 to 2017 during part of Barack Obama’s presidential term.
Kerry, who ends his stay in Beijing on Wednesday, met throughout the week with his counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and the leader of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Foreign Relations Committee. , Wang. Yi.
Current US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also recently visited Beijing, with the aim of boosting the bilateral relationship, which is going through its worst moment since the establishment of bilateral relations in 1979. , faced with a protracted trade war and disputes over the sovereignty of the South China Sea, the status of Taiwan or human rights issues.
Kissinger, who was National Security Adviser and Secretary of State to Richard Nixon (1969-1974) and Gerald Ford (1974-1977), is considered the architect of the normalization of relations with China.
The former American politician continued, in recent decades, to visit China, where he met on several occasions with the current Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Source: TSF
