Rubio meets Wang, discusses laying groundwork for Chinese president's US visit

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he discussed ​with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday the need to identify areas of cooperation to lay the ‌groundwork for a "very positive visit" to Washington in September by President Xi Jinping, Reuters reported.

Meeting with Wang in Manila on the sidelines of a regional gathering led by the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN, Rubio said both sides had differences, but their job was to manage them and ensure they do not get out of ​control.

The work we need to do now in September is to identify what those areas are, so that we can lay the groundwork for a very positive visit ... we talked a lot about that," he told reporters.

"There ⁠are areas of great differences. Both sides will acknowledge that. We'll have to work through those, and I think these differences will exist for the foreseeable future."

"We're obviously always going to defend our national interest, and I expect they'll do the same as they define it, but I think there are some areas of potential cooperation," he added.

Wang did not speak to media immediately after the meeting and China had yet to issue a statement on the talks with Rubio.