China’s foreign minister Wang Yi and U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan recently held bilateral talks in Malta. The purpose of these talks was to discuss important matters before a potential meeting between China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting in November.

This meeting in Malta follows Wang and Sullivan’s previous meeting in Vienna. It also comes after several high-level officials from both countries visited each other’s capitals in recent months. Additionally, Wang is scheduled to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later this week.

China’s Foreign Ministry announced that Vice President Han Zheng will represent the country at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, indicating that Wang and Xi will not attend.

The White House and China’s Foreign Ministry termed the two-day talks in Malta as “candid, substantive, and constructive” in their respective statements. The White House emphasized that the meeting aims to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the relationship between the two nations. The Chinese side stated that the meeting focused on stabilizing and improving Sino-U.S. relations.

During the talks, Wang and Sullivan addressed various issues, including global and regional security, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the situation on the Korean peninsula, and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

Notably, the unofficial agenda of Wang and Sullivan’s meeting in Malta did not include the recent disappearances of China’s former foreign minister Qin Gang and defense minister Li Shangfu. Qin was removed from his position by President Xi, leading to Wang reassuming his former role as foreign minister.