Rubio meets Wang Yi on sidelines of Asean meetings

Asean 2025

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kuala Lumpur on Friday (July 11), their first in-person meeting at a time of simmering trade tensions between the two major powers.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kuala

00:07Lumpur on Friday, their first in-person meeting at a time of simmering trade tensions between

00:13the two major powers. Washington's top diplomat is in Malaysia on his first trip to Asia since

00:19taking office, attending the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum alongside counterparts

00:26from Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, Australia, India, the European Union, and Southeast Asian

00:34states. His meeting with Wang comes amid escalating friction globally over U.S. President Donald

00:41Trump's tariffs offensive, with China this week warning the United States against reinstating

00:46hefty levies on its goods next month. Beijing has also threatened to retaliate against nations that

00:52strike deals with the U.S. to cut China out of supply chains. Rubio's visit is part of an effort

00:58to renew U.S. focus on the Indo-Pacific region and look beyond conflicts in the Middle East

01:04and Europe that have consumed much of the Trump administration's attention. But that has been

01:09overshadowed by this week's announcement of steep U.S. tariffs on many Asian countries and U.S.

01:15allies that include 25% on Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia, 32% for Indonesia, 36% for Thailand and

01:25Cambodia, and 40% on Myanmar and Laos. Analysts said Rubio would be looking to press the case that

01:32the U.S. remains a better partner than China, Washington's main strategic rival, during the visit.

01:39China, initially singled out with tariffs exceeding 100%, has until August 12th to reach a deal with

01:47the White House to keep Trump from reinstating additional import curbs imposed during tit-for-tat

01:54tariff exchanges in April and May. Wang Yi has been fierce in his criticism of the U.S. in Kuala Lumpur

02:01and told Malaysia's foreign minister the U.S. tariffs were

02:05typical unilateral bullying behavior that no country should support or agree with.

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