Top US envoy expects to meet with Chinese foreign minister during tour of Asian allies

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week, with issues to include Beijing’s purported aid for Russian military against Ukraine and its assertive behaviour in the contested South China Sea.

The discussion is expected on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting, which runs through Sunday in Vientiane, Laos.

“We do anticipate that he’ll have an opportunity to engage with Wang Yi, and we’ll have more details to announce,” Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said on Monday.

Kritenbrink was previewing Blinken’s Asian tour, which is scheduled to run from Tuesday through August 3, and includes stops in Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Mongolia.

Blinken’s visit to Asia comes as regional allies’ uncertainties rise about the direction of Washington’s foreign policy. The US elections in November and the possible return of former president Donald Trump to the White House have raised the question of whether the US might turn toward isolationism.

Moreover, the announcement by President Joe Biden on Sunday that he was withdrawing from the race and endorsing Vice-President Kamala Harris for the Democratic Party nomination could only add to the concerns.

While not directly addressing the US political climate, Kritenbrink said that “apart from our engagement with Asean and Southeast Asian partners, this trip is also an opportunity to highlight the unprecedented work we’ve done to strengthen relationships with our treaty allies in the Indo-Pacific”.

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In a separate briefing Monday, though, State Department spokesman Matthew