Advertisement
Differing US and Chinese objectives will limit outcomes of a Xi-Biden meeting: Kevin Rudd
- Ambassadors to US from Australia, Singapore and France agree it is in the interests of their countries to preserve Taiwan status quo
- Singapore arrived at its positions ‘not because we want to please one side or the other, but because of our own particular circumstances’, says envoy
Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
2
China and the US both seek to stabilise their relationship but each brings a different lens to an expected meeting between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in November, according to Australia’s envoy to the US.
Advertisement
Ambassador Kevin Rudd told a panel hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington on Monday the difference in expectations would lead to “at best, modest outcomes”.
Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi’s trip to the US last week is seen as moving the two countries a step closer to a Xi-Biden meeting on the sidelines of the Apec summit in San Francisco next month.
Rudd said China’s interest was in “more trade, more investment or access to capital markets” to relieve its “internal economic tension” while the US was seeking to de-risk economically from China and reduce the risk of conflict through resumed military dialogue.
China was actively focused on revitalising its economy but this did not mean it had fundamentally changed its strategic calculus on Taiwan or the South China Sea, said Rudd, who was joined in the panel by ambassadors to the US from Singapore and France.
02:17
China’s Wang Yi calls for ‘in-depth’ Sino-US dialogue ahead of Antony Blinken talks in Washington
China’s Wang Yi calls for ‘in-depth’ Sino-US dialogue ahead of Antony Blinken talks in Washington
Singapore’s ambassador to the US, Lui Tuck Yew, also tempered expectations of a Xi-Biden breakthrough, despite noting that both sides had halted a downward spiral in the relationship.
Advertisement