During an interview aired on Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question on China gaining economic ground by having Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visit while failing to resume military-to-military communications that the United States wants resumed by stating that trying to get the military communications channels back open is “something we’ll continue to look for.” And that Yellen’s trip gave us the ability “to talk extensively about the places where we have real and deep differences, to also look at areas where we might cooperate because it’s in our mutual interest to do so. That’s going to continue.”
Host Andrea Mitchell asked, “If the result is to clearly understand each other, why have they gained some economic ground by having these communications, by having Secretary Yellen there, but we still do not have military-to-military communications with increasingly aggressive behaviors by China in the air, at sea, against our assets?”
Blinken answered, “Well, this is one of the things that should be re-established. I think the world expects us to responsibly manage the relationship. And it’s clearly in the interest of both countries to avoid any kind of miscalculations, especially military. So, that’s something we’ll continue to look for. But we’ve had the ability through the lengthy discussions that I had in China, Secretary Yellen as well, to talk extensively about the places where we have real and deep differences, to also look at areas where we might cooperate because it’s in our mutual interest to do so. That’s going to continue.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
