MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th September, 2022) Washington has called on Beijing to resume dialogue after it was halted due to the controversial visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in early August, and urged China to maintain cooperation in environmental and healthcare sectors, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said on Thursday.
"Our message to the Chinese is let's talk, open these dialogues and let's move forward," Burns said in a televised speech at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore, as quoted by The Standard newspaper.
The ambassador added that the United States and China should cooperate on climate change and healthcare issues, and that Washington is interested in preservation of effective competition with Beijing, according to the report.
Pelosi traveled to Taiwan on August 2. It was the first visit by a US House speaker to the island since 1997. Moreover, Pelosi became the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years. China condemned Pelosi's trip, which it regarded as a gesture of support for separatism, and launched large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island.
Beijing considers Taiwan an unalienable part of its sovereign territory and opposes any official contacts between the island and other countries. The US has been supporting pro-independence forces in Taiwan and selling weapons to the island. Beijing has repeatedly said that the One China principle is a political foundation of China-US relations and that violations by Washington of its own obligations have been jeopardizing cooperation between the two countries, threatening peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
