The Secretary of State for the United States, Marco Rubio, said Friday that he had “positive and constructive” conversations with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, since the two main powers competed to boost their agendas in Asia at a time of tension on the offensive tariffs of Washington.
The main diplomat of the United States was in Malaysia on his first trip in Asia since he assumed the position, trying to emphasize the commitment of the United States with the region at the Summit of Oriental Asia and the Regional Forum of the Association of Nations of Southeast Asian (ASEAN), where many countries were recovering from a series of steep US tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump Trump this week.
Rubio had his first conversations in person with the Chinese Foreign Minister, which occurred after Beijing warned the United States that they did not restore the strong taxes on their assets next month and threatened reprisals against the nations that attack the United States to cut China from supply chains.
Wang has abruptly criticized Washington during conversations with Asian counterparts in Malaysia, qualifying US tariffs “typical unilateral harassing behavior.”
But both parties described the bilateral meeting as positive and constructive and Rubio said that the chances of Trump meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping to be high.
“We are two large and powerful countries, and there will always be problems that we do not agree. I think there are some areas of potential cooperation and I thought it was a very constructive and positive meeting and a lot of work to do,” he told reporters.
Rubio emphasized that his sitting with Wang was not a negotiation, but rather to establish a constructive baseline to continue the conversations.
When asked about a possible Trump-XI meeting, Rubio said both parties wanted to see what happened.
“We have to build the right atmosphere and build … deliverable, so that a visit is not just a visit, but in reality it has some conclusions that are concrete. But there is a strong desire on both sides of doing it.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wang had emphasized that both countries should translate the consensus achieved by their policies and actions.
“Both parties agreed that the meeting was positive, pragmatic and constructive,” he said.
Trip eclipsed by rates
Rubio’s visit is part of an effort to renew the United States approach in the Indo-Pacific region and look beyond conflicts in the Middle East and Europe that have consumed much of the administration’s attention since Trump’s return to charge in January.
But that has been eclipsed by the announcement of this week of the steep American tariffs on the imports of many Asian and allied countries of the United States, including 25 percent addressed to Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, 32pc for Indonesia, 36pc for Thailand and Cambodia and 40 PC of Myanmar and Laos.
China, initially pointed out with levies greater than 100 percent, until August 12 has reached an agreement with Washington to prevent Trump from restoring the additional import curbs that were imposed during the Tit Tit rates exchanges for Tit in April and May.
Analysts said Rubio would use the trip to press the case that the United States is still a better partner than China, the main strategic rival of Washington. Rubio met his counterparts from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia today.
Wang has rebuked the United States in Kuala Lumpur, saying that no country should support or agree with its tariffs, according to comments published by Beijing Today.
He told Thailand’s Foreign Minister that tariffs had been abused and “undermined the free trade system, and interfered with the stability of global production and supply production.”
During a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart, Wang said that the American taxes were an attempt to deprive Southeast Asia countries of their legitimate development to development.
“We believe that Southeast Asia countries have the ability to deal with complex situations, adhere to principles positions and safeguard their own interests,” he said.
In a joint statement today, the foreign ministers of the ASEAN expressed concern about the increase in global commercial tensions and the need to diversify trade, asking for a transparent and fair multilateral trade system.
Not to mention the US, they said that unilateral tariffs were “counterproductive and the risk that exacerbated global economic fragmentation.”
Indispensable association
Rubio also met Sergei Lavrov in Russia on Thursday and said that he and Lavrov had shared some ideas about a new or different Russian approach to Ukraine.
“I don’t want to fly it out, it’s fine, but it was constructive,” he said today. “We will discover it, but there are some things that we will explore potentially, and I transmitted it to the president and our team last night.”
Rubio also met with Japan Foreign Minister and the first Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea in Malaysia to discuss regional security and a strengthening of his “indispensable trilateral association,” said the United States State Department in a statement.
When asked about the comments of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ihiba on Thursday that Tokyo needs to dismiss his Washington dependence, Rubio said it was not a comment to see himself negatively.
“Obviously we have very strong commitments and an alliance with Japan. We continue to cooperate very closely with them,” he said.
