For the United States and China, the joint fight against climate change is also an opportunity to improve diplomatic relations, said John Kerry, the US president’s special envoy on climate change, on Tuesday in Beijing, where he met with Chinese State Councilor for Foreign Affairs Wang Jie.
Kerry said he was confident the parties would not only begin a dialogue on climate change, but could also initiate changes in broader relationships. He added that US President Joe Biden also wants it.
He stated that Washington and Beijing together could be at the forefront of the fight against climate change.
For his part, Wang Ji called the American diplomat his old friend and confirmed that many contentious issues were raised during the meeting, and Kerry referred to previous discussions between them among other things related to the Iranian nuclear program. At the same time, Wang Ji identified the lack of dialogue as the reason for the deterioration of relations, pointing out that all matters could be resolved with proper dialogue.
As a climate change envoy, Kerry visited China for the third time. He is the third high-ranking US politician to visit China in the past few weeks, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. While Kerry previously sought to address climate change issues separately from other aspects of the Sino-US relationship, Wang Jie stressed during Kerry’s previous visit in 2021 that the issue cannot be separated from other important issues.
On Tuesday, Kerry also spoke with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who drew his attention to increasingly frequent heat waves, saying the situation was more serious than ever.
