U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will bring up Russia's war in Ukraine during his upcoming trip to China, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.
Kirby said one of the major goals of the visit is to restore and revitalize communication channels on military, climate change and many other issues, which were shut off by China in the wake of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last August.
"This is the most consequential bilateral relationship in the world," the spokesman said during an online press briefing.
Blinken's visit to Beijing, the date of which has still not been officially announced, is likely to take place on Feb. 5 to 6. The trip will be the first by a U.S. secretary of state in more than four years.
His trip will be a follow-up to U.S. President Joe Biden's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November, which was held on the Indonesian island of Bali on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit.
During the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents, they agreed to facilitate communication and have Blinken visit China for the next round of discussions, despite the two countries' very different positions on Taiwan, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and economic and human rights issues.
On the invasion, China has opposed a series of sanctions imposed on Russia by major democratic countries and it continues to boost military and economic ties with Moscow.
