United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken criticized Beijing for its position on Ukraine and declared that he does not think China is maintaining neutrality on this topic, reports Bloomberg on Saturday.
He made such a statement after a meeting with the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Yi, which, according to the agency, lasted about five hours.
According to Blinken, during the meeting with Van, he told him that Beijing should “invite Russia to allow the export of grain” from Ukrainian ports blocked by its troops. Also, according to the agency, the American Secretary of State said that “China’s support for Russia at the UN is obvious”. However, Blinken called the negotiations “useful, frank and constructive”.
At the same time, the Asian media reports that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China issued a statement following the negotiations between Minister Wang Yi and Blinken, which states that the parties reached a consensus on the issue of establishing ties during the G20 meeting.
Before the negotiations, Van Yi declared that “we need to work together to guarantee that these relations will continue to develop in the right direction”.
This is the first personal meeting of Blinken and Van I since October last year.
