Blinken Discusses US-China Ties in Call with New Foreign Minister Qin 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the State Department on December 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the State Department on December 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Blinken Discusses US-China Ties in Call with New Foreign Minister Qin 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the State Department on December 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the State Department on December 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. (AFP/Getty Images)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke on Sunday with incoming Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, appointed last week to the post following his role as ambassador to the United States. 

On Twitter, Blinken said he discussed the US-China relationship and efforts to maintain open lines of communication in a telephone call with Qin. 

On Friday China appointed Qin, its ambassador to the United States and a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, to be its new foreign minister, as Beijing and Washington seek to stabilize rocky relations. 

China's foreign ministry acknowledged that the two spoke by phone. 

In a statement on its official website on Monday, the ministry said Qin bid farewell to Blinken during the call, while added that he looked forward to maintaining close working ties with Blinken and promoting Sino-US relations. 

Qin, 56, replaces Wang Yi, who had been foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, 69, was promoted to the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party in October and is expected to play a bigger role in foreign policy. 

Though Qin sounded optimistic about US-China relations during his brief 17-month stint as ambassador, a post his predecessor occupied for eight years, his tenure nonetheless coincided with deteriorating ties between the two. 

Wang's stint as foreign minister saw a sharp rise in tensions between Beijing and Washington on a range of issues from trade to Taiwan. 



North Korea's Kim Jong Un Attends New Year's Celebrations with Daughter

This photo provided on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, with his daughter, second left, attend a New Year celebration in Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 31, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
This photo provided on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, with his daughter, second left, attend a New Year celebration in Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 31, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
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North Korea's Kim Jong Un Attends New Year's Celebrations with Daughter

This photo provided on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, with his daughter, second left, attend a New Year celebration in Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 31, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
This photo provided on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, with his daughter, second left, attend a New Year celebration in Pyongyang, North Korea on Dec. 31, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Ju Ae attended New Year's celebrations including fireworks and an ice dancing display, state media KCNA reported on Wednesday.
Senior North Korean officials joined them in watching the events, state media photos showed. There was no mention of any speech by Kim.
KCNA said on the previous day that Kim had pledged to solidify the country's comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia in a letter to President Vladimir Putin.
In the message, Kim sent New Year greetings to Putin and all Russians, including their troops and expressed his willingness to further step up bilateral ties, which he said the two leaders have elevated to a new height this year, through new projects, KCNA said.
Kim "wished that the New Year 2025 would be recorded as the first year of victory in the 21st century when the Russian army and people would defeat neo-Nazism and achieve a great victory," KCNA said.

Kim and Putin signed a mutual defense treaty at a summit in June, which calls for each side to come to the other's aid in case of an armed attack.
North Korea has since dispatched tens of thousands of troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, and Seoul and Washington said that more than a thousand of them have been killed or wounded.