Key points
- It will be the first in-person meeting of the two counterparts
- Rubio and Wang are in Kuala Lumpur to attend ASEAN meeting
- Beijing and Washington agree in May to temporarily slash their staggeringly high tariffs
ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, the State Department said.
Reuters reported that it will be the first in-person meeting of the two counterparts.
AFP reported that Rubio and Wang are in Kuala Lumpur for a gathering of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which Japan, South Korea and Australia are also attending.
US officials said ahead of Rubio’s first trip to the region as secretary of state that Washington was “prioritising” its commitment to East and Southeast Asia, according to AFP.
“More reasonable”
Trump has threatened punitive tariffs ranging from 20 to 50 per cent against more than 20 countries, many of them in Asia, if they do not strike deals with Washington by August 1.
Wang on Thursday called for a “fairer and more reasonable” international order.
“At the same time, we are also confronted with challenges such as the impact of unilateral protectionism and the abuse of tariffs by a certain major country,” AFP cited him as saying.
At one point the United States hit China with additional levies of 145 per cent on its goods as both sides engaged in tit-for-tat response. China’s countermeasures on US goods reached 125 per cent.
Beijing and Washington agreed in May to temporarily slash their staggeringly high tariffs — an outcome Trump dubbed a “total reset”.
