Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a "positive and constructive" call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported, with Beijing expressing willingness to strengthen communication and cooperation with Washington.

The talks come roughly a week ahead of the Apec Economic Leaders' Meeting in Shenzhen, where Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump are expected to meet.

The current stability in China-US relations has not come easily, Wang said, calling it "a rational choice made by the two major countries based on respective and shared interests," the Xinhua report said.

The Xinhua report quoted Wang as saying that China, having maintained a stable and consistent policy towards the United States, is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with Washington, properly handle differences and sensitive issues, support each other in hosting the 2026 Apec Economic Leaders' Meeting and the G20 Summit, and work to bring a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability into effect and deliver results.

Xi and Trump have met twice already this year and Rubio told reporters on Tuesday there was work underway to arrange a trilateral meeting on the Apec sidelines involving Xi, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Rubio said Trump wants that meeting to happen and added: "We think it should be possible."

Trump said on Sunday he thought he would meet Xi and Putin in Shenzhen and discuss ending the war in Iran and denuclearisation.

He said in October that he was open to three-way arms control talks with Xi and Putin, which he said would focus on nuclear weapons.

China's foreign ministry said last month that its "nuclear strength is by no means at the same level with that of the US and Russia" and that it would be "neither fair, reasonable nor realistic to ask China to join the so-called trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations at this stage."

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Putin has pitched using a trilateral meeting to discuss an end to Russia's long-running war in Ukraine. (Xinhua/Reuters)



Edited by Cecil Wong