BEIJInG: China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday that relations between the two countries were facing “new difficulties and challenges,” Beijing said.
“Since the beginning of the year, Sino-American relations have faced new difficulties and challenges,” Qin said, according to a Chinese foreign ministry readout of a phone call between the two top diplomats.
“It’s clear who is responsible,” Qin said.
“China has always viewed and managed China-US relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation put forward by President Xi Jinping,” he added.
The call between the two diplomats comes ahead of an expected visit by Blinken to China on Sunday.
Presidents Joe Biden and Xi met in Bali in November and agreed to try to stop high tensions from soaring out of control, including by sending Blinken to Beijing.
Blinken then abruptly canceled a trip scheduled in early February after the United States said it detected — and later shot down — a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over the US mainland, drawing fury from US lawmakers and denials by Beijing.
But the two sides have more recently looked again to keep tensions in check including with an extensive, closed-door meeting between Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna last month.
Tensions have risen sharply between the world’s two largest economies in recent years, especially over Taiwan, the self-governing democracy that Beijing claims and has not ruled out seizing by force.
China FM tells Blinken relationship with US facing ‘new difficulties’
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China FM tells Blinken relationship with US facing ‘new difficulties’
- ’China has always viewed and managed China-US relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation’
OSCE to probe Georgia over human rights concerns
- OSCE said they were invoking the so-called Moscow mechanism to “establish a fact-finding mission” focusing on Georgia
- The mission will “assess Georgia’s implementation of its OSCE commitments”
VIENNA: The world’s largest regional security organization will probe the human rights situation in Georgia, with members expressing “increasing concern” about democratic backsliding in the Caucasus nation in a statement Thursday.
Authorities in the Black Sea country have in recent years pursued a crackdown on the opposition and have jailed prominent pro-EU figures.
The government has faced accusations of democratic backsliding, drifting toward Russia and derailing Georgia’s bid to join the European Union — allegations it rejects.
In a joint statement seen by AFP, 24 members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said they were invoking the so-called Moscow mechanism to “establish a fact-finding mission” focusing on Georgia.
The mission will “assess Georgia’s implementation of its OSCE commitments, with a particular focus on developments since spring 2024.”
“We have followed closely and with increasing concern the human rights situation in Georgia,” said the joint statement made by 23 European countries and Canada.
The countries urged Georgia “to cooperate with and facilitate the work of the mission.”
Under the mechanism, experts on a mission have a time frame of several weeks to submit their report.
Most recently, the mechanism has been invoked several times to send experts to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022, with them finding “clear patterns of international humanitarian law violations.”
Founded in 1975 to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War, the Vienna-based OSCE counts 57 members from Europe, Central Asia and North America, including Russia, Ukraine and the United States.
