US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser has met China’s foreign minister over the past two days in Malta in an effort that the White House says is intended to “responsibly maintain the relationship” at a time of strained ties.

The White House said in a statement that Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi had “candid, substantive and constructive discussions” as the governments of the world’s two largest economies try “to maintain open lines of communication”.

Sullivan and Wang last met in May in Vienna for talks.

Officials from the US and China see themselves as competitors despite an extensive trade partnership.

Biden recently spoke with Chinese Premier Li Qiang while in India at a G20 summit and said afterward that they had talked about “stability” and “it wasn’t confrontational at all”.

Biden has worked to strengthen relations with Japan, South Korea, India, Vietnam and others to counterbalance China’s influence across the Pacific region.

Yet Biden said last Sunday in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi that those alliances are not about a “cold war” with China.

“It’s not about containing China,” he said.

“It’s about having a stable base” for global economic growth.
Yet the relationship is full of competing pressures.

The White House said Sullivan and Wang discussed the relationship between the two countries, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the Taiwan Strait.

“The United States noted the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The two sides committed to maintain this strategic channel of communication and to pursue additional high-level engagement and consultations in key areas between the United States and the People’s Republic of China in the coming months,” according to the statement.

The Sullivan-Wang meeting came as Biden and other world leaders get set for the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly.

Biden is scheduled to address the world body on Tuesday and meet leaders of five central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stepped up his own courting of those countries.

During his own summit in May with the central Asian leaders, Xi promised to build more railway and other trade links with the region and proposed jointly developing oil and gas sources.

Sullivan said last week that Biden’s meeting with those leaders should not be seen as an effort to counterbalance Chinese influence in the region.

“Look, this summit is not against any country,” he said, previewing the meeting.

“It is for a positive agenda that we want to work through with these countries.”

Xi did not attend last weekend’s G20 summit in Delhi and is not expected to be in New York for the UN General Assembly.

Biden has said he hopes to soon meet with Xi.

The two leaders have not spoken since they met for talks last November in Indonesia, according to the White House.

Sullivan also met Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela.

They talked about the Mediterranean region’s role in helping to provide “global peace and security,” according to a statement by the Maltese government.

-AAP