U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi began talks in Switzerland on Wednesday, in a bid to improve communication despite a deepening strategic rivalry and tensions over hotspots including Taiwan, APA reports quoting Reuters.
A source close to the Zurich talks told Reuters that the closed-door meeting was under way at an airport hotel in the Swiss city, where Chinese and Western journalists gathered.
It is Sullivan's first face-to-face meeting with Yang since their acrimonious exchanges in Alaska in March, which also involved U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The White House said in a statement that the meeting follows up on President Joe Biden's Sept. 9 call with Chinese President Xi Jinping "as we continue to seek to responsibly manage the competition between the United States and the People's Republic of China."
That call ended a nearly seven-month gap in direct communication between the leaders, and they discussed the need to ensure that competition between the two - with relations sinking to their lowest level in decades - does not veer into conflict.
In a brief statement on Wednesday, China's foreign ministry said Yang and Sullivan will "exchange views on China-U.S. relations and relevant issues" during their Zurich meeting.
Taiwan has reported 148 Chinese air force planes in the southern and southwestern part of its air defence zone over a four-day period beginning on Friday, the same day China marked a patriotic holiday, National Day.
The United States urged China on Sunday to stop its "provocative" military activities near Taiwan.
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