US and China to hold counter-narcotics talks after back-channel Thai meeting

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The US and China will hold counter-narcotics talks in Beijing next week, after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met in Bangkok in an effort to further stabilise relations.

The White House said Sullivan and Wang welcomed progress on efforts to counter the narcotics trade as both sides prepared to hold the first meeting of a working group established when President Joe Biden held a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November.

The White House said the meeting was “part of the effort to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage competition” that had been agreed by Biden and Xi.

It said both sides welcomed recent efforts to stabilise relations, including the resumption of talks between the US and Chinese militaries that China halted in 2022 after then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.

The White House said they also held “candid, substantive and constructive discussions” on issues that included Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Middle East, North Korea and the South China Sea. They also discussed a bilateral dialogue on artificial intelligence that will start in the spring.

The Financial Times reported recently that top US officials had pressed China to urge Tehran to rein in the Iranian-backed Houthis who have attacked commercial vessels in the Red Sea for the past two months.

They also discussed Taiwan, following the election this month of Lai Ching-te as president. Beijing views Lai as a dangerous separatist and worry that he will push Taiwan towards independence. Washington has urged China not to take provocative actions as Taiwan prepares for Lai’s inauguration in May.

In another sign of improvement, US officials said there had been no dangerous aerial intercepts of US spy planes by Chinese fighter jets over the South China Sea in…