Blinken’s Rescheduled China Trip, Modi’s State Visit to U.S., Ukraine’s Counteroffensive, and More

The World Next Week

Council on Foreign Relations

Politics, News, News:politics

4.6 • 845 Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally heads to China amid hopes that U.S.-China tensions will subside; U.S. President Joe Biden hosts Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a state visit to focus on expanded, strategic economic ties; Ukraine presses on with its long-awaited counteroffensive; and four indigenous children survive forty days in the Amazon after a plane crash. For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/blinkens-rescheduled-china-trip-modis-state-visit-us-ukraines-counteroffensive-and-more

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the coming week, U.S. Secretary Blinken visits Beijing.
0:06.0	President Biden hosts India's Prime Minister Modi for a state visit, and Ukraine forges ahead with its long-awaited counteroffensive.
0:13.0	It's June 15, 2023 in time for the world next week. I'm Bob McMahon.
0:26.5	And I'm Carly Ann Robbins.
0:28.5	Carla, let's kick off with some diplomacy, shall we?
0:31.0	This weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will land in China.
0:34.6	Now, this was supposed to happen earlier in the year, and we then talked
0:39.0	about for several weeks the so-called spy balloon incident and all sorts of other episodes of
0:44.4	rancor interceded. But things are back on. Are the two sides then going to be making nice and
0:50.3	making productive conversation? If only. So, Bob, it's a sign of how fraught this relationship
0:56.1	has become that President Biden and China's President Xi Jinping agreed way back in November that
1:02.0	Tony Blinken would go to Beijing early this year. And it's taken seven months to make that happen.
1:07.0	And at this point, we're pretty sure it's going to. But if you recall, we predicted that and then it all fell apart.
1:13.8	As you said, Blinken's original trip was scheduled for February.
1:16.9	Then just before he was to leave, a Chinese spy balloon was spotted over Montana.
1:21.1	And Congress was up in arms, and the administration canceled that visit.
1:24.9	The Chinese then spent the following four months pretty much ghosting the administration. Beijing refused to reschedule the Blinken visit. The Chinese then spent the following four months pretty much ghosting the
1:28.1	administration. Beijing refused to reschedule the Blinken visit. She rebuff requests for a call with
1:33.6	Biden. And earlier this month, as we discussed on the podcast, China's new defense minister refused to
1:39.0	meet with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin when both men spoke at the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore.
1:45.4	And then last week,
1:50.1	when news began to leak out that Blinken's trip was finally back on, the Wall Street Journal reported that Cuba had agreed to let China build, quote, an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island,
	...

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