Secretary Antony J. Blinken And People’s Republic of China Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong Before Their Meeting

MPS MINISTER WANG:  (Via interpreter) (In progress) — had a very long discussion.  It is the first face-to-face conversation between an official like myself and a State Secretary of the United States, demonstrating the importance that your side attached to our law enforcement cooperation.  He also demonstrated the law enforcement cooperation is important part of our bilateral relationship.  I am also very delighted to see Ambassador Burns, Assistant Secretary Kritenbrink, and Assistant Secretary Robinson, as well as many other old and new friends.

Last November, our two presidents had a historic summit meeting in San Francisco, and reached a series of important common understandings and deliverables, and opened up a future-oriented San Francisco vision.  On April 2nd, President Xi had a phone call with President Joe Biden at the request of the latter.  He pointed out to develop our bilateral relationship this year with the emphasis on peace, stability, and credibility.  He laid emphasis on strengthening dialogues in a mutually respectful way, managing differences prudently, advancing cooperation in the spirit of mutual benefit.

Together with the three principles of mutual – and mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and willing cooperation, altogether they have laid out the overarching principles for how we should view and handle our bilateral relationship.  In order to implement this important common understanding, beginning of this year, I had a video call with Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, and together with Deputy Assistant Daskal we jointly announced the launch of China-U.S. Counternarcotics Working Group, and I also went to Vienna and had a meeting with Secretary Mayorkas.

We agreed that our law enforcement cooperation should be based on mutual respect, managing differences, and mutually beneficial cooperation, and we advance our cooperation on counternarcotics and law enforcement.  We also made positive progress in terms of addressing each other’s concerns.  Later on, President Xi Jinping will also meet you.  Here I would like to exchange ideas with you with regard to our counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation.

Now I will first of all give the floor to you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, Mr. Minister, thank you very much and appreciate this opportunity today to speak with you and your colleagues.  I did, as you said, just have an extensive and I think constructive conversation with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, spent about five and a half hours covering so many of the issues that define our relationship.

But in particular, we focused on following through on the work that our two presidents did when they met in San Francisco as well as in their recent phone call, and that includes trying to enhance areas of cooperation as well as dealing directly with the differences we have.

One of the areas for cooperation that the two presidents identified in San Francisco was on counternarcotics, and we appreciate the work that’s been done in the time since then to build that cooperation.  There is more that needs to be done to have a sustained impact, and I very much look forward to discussing that with you today as well as other issues between us.

But I think our ability to cooperate in this area, to show results, will have a very positive impact on relations between our countries and the interests of our people, so I look forward to this discussion.

Thank you for having us today.