MANILA, July 21 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week ahead of a possible summit between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping, even as Trump said the U.S. would raise concerns with China over alleged election meddling.
A U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday that Rubio and Wang will meet in Manila, where foreign ministers from the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and major partners have gathered to discuss a range of global issues.
Analysts have said a Rubio meeting with his Chinese counterpart was likely to focus on preparations for a second meeting between Trump and Xi after the two met last May.
Trump has said Xi will visit the U.S. at the end of September, and Rubio on Sunday said that the summit was still anticipated. China has yet to confirm Xi’s visit to Washington.
“I have no reason to believe that they won’t be coming. It’s important,” Rubio told reporters as he departed for ASEAN.
A fragile truce between the two global superpowers could be complicated by Trump’s renewed accusations last week of Chinese meddling in U.S. elections — claims Beijing has denied.
Tense U.S.-China relations have stabilized under a temporary trade truce reached by Trump and Xi in October, but deep differences still define ties between the two nations in what many analysts see as a new form of Cold War.
“There are always going to be things we don’t agree on, but I think it’s incumbent on powerful and important countries like ours to continue to talk and have a relationship,” Rubio said over the weekend.
A 2021 U.S. intelligence community assessment found no indications that China or other foreign actors attempted or succeeded in altering “any technical aspect” of the 2020 presidential election vote.
Asked what consequences Beijing could face for his election meddling claims, Trump on Tuesday said the issue would be raised but offered no specifics.
“We’re going to talk to them about it. It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then. But look, they do things, and we do things to them,” he told reporters at the White House. “It’s not a one-way street.”
(Reporting by Michael Martina; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Michelle Nichols, Caitlin Webber, William Maclean)
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