WASHINGTON — Shortly earlier than setting out for Beijing, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday emphasised the significance of the U.S. and China establishing higher strains of communication. He would be the highest-ranking member of the Biden administration to go to China.

The U.S. needs to verify “that the competition we have with China doesn’t veer into conflict” as a consequence of avoidable misunderstandings, Blinken informed reporters in Washington.

Blinken, talking alongside Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, stated his China journey is the outgrowth of a gathering in Bali final 12 months between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden. The two agreed that China and the United States, the world’s largest two economies and more and more prime rivals for world affect, should keep contacts and take steps to keep away from unintended conflicts.

Blinken’s journey got here inside a day of taking place in February however was delayed by the diplomatic and political tumult introduced on by the invention of what the U.S. says was a Chinese spy balloon flying throughout the United States.

Biden and Xi had made commitments to enhance communications “precisely so that we can make sure we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid possible misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken stated Friday. “The place you start is with communicating.”

U.S. allies and others are signaling that they need the 2 rivals to “responsibly manage this relationship and look for areas where our cooperation might produce results that benefit not only our own people but people around the world, including in the region,” he stated.

Blinken was to go away Washington late Friday for conferences on Sunday and Monday.

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