THE US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met today with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, according to an AFP reporter.

The meeting comes as part of efforts by China and the United States to stabilize a strained relationship in the wake of the US-China leaders’ summit held last November in California.

The two officials, who last spoke by phone in December, did not comment to reporters.

After a particularly tense period at the beginning of last year, which was connected to the case of the Chinese balloon that had flown over the USAWashington and Beijing express their willingness to manage their relationship “responsibly” and express their willingness to make progress in certain areas of cooperation such as the fight against fentanyl.

Minister Wang Yi and the White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan they also had talks at the end of January in Bangkok that were then described as “sincere” and “substantial” and concerned, among other things, the very sensitive issue of Taiwan, which divides the world’s two biggest powers.

The back-to-back meetings could lead to a phone call in the spring between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden, months after they met in person in Woodside, California last fall.

Washington, for its part, denounces Beijing’s expansionist goals in South China Sea mainly, as well as its industrial policy.

The discussions in Munich are taking place at a time when the US Congress is considering granting a budget allocation for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which is a key strategic ally of the United States.

These funds were approved by the US Senate but have not been submitted for a vote in the House of Representatives.

The Sino-US talks are being held during an election year for the United States and as his Republican rival Joe Bidenformer President Donald Trump, is campaigning for a confrontational approach to China.

The United States and China have held separate meetings in recent weeks to curb the trafficking of fentanyl, the synthetic drug that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year.

Shortly before his meeting with the Chinese minister, Blinken also met in Munich with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, a representative of the other Asian giant. The US Secretary of State expressed his satisfaction for the “excellent cooperation that has strengthened in recent years to become stronger than ever”.

The US government approved in early February the sale of $4 billion worth of military drones to India, a pledge to boost their cooperation, including military, much to Beijing’s chagrin.