New developments in US relations

Politico on June 9 quoted sources as saying that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Beijing next week. The US State Department is still working out the details of the visit.

It is expected to be the highest-level visit by a US official to China since former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2018. Sources also said that Secretary Blinken will go to Beijing after his current trip to the Middle East. The US State Department has not confirmed Mr. Blinken's upcoming visit, while Chinese Embassy spokesman Liu Pengwu said "China is open to dialogue with the US."

Politico predicts that Secretary of State Blinken will face criticism from Republican lawmakers for traveling to China amid reports that the country is negotiating with Cuba to establish a foothold there to spy on the United States.

Secretary of State Blinken may visit China after Middle East tour

On the same day, June 8, The Wall Street Journal quoted several US officials as saying that China had reached a secret agreement with Cuba to set up an electronic eavesdropping facility on an island about 160 km from the state of Florida (USA). Accordingly, the establishment of such a spying facility would allow Beijing to collect electronic communications from the southeastern US, where many US military bases are located, as well as monitor the movement of ships. The above officials also said that the two sides had reached an agreement in principle, with China paying Cuba "several billion dollars" to allow the eavesdropping station.

US, Cuba speak out after news of China reaching agreement to build spy base

Meanwhile, US Defense Department spokesman Patrick Ryder said "we are not aware of any reports that China and Cuba are developing a new type of spy station" and called the report inaccurate. In Havana, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio also dismissed the report, saying it was "completely false and baseless" and that the US was using it to justify its decades-long economic embargo on Cuba. He also stressed that Cuba denies any foreign military presence in the region. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC said: "We are not aware of the incident and cannot comment at this time."

* On June 9, AFP reported that the US and UK have just announced an agreement called the Atlantic Declaration, in the context of the two countries' leaders focusing on a "special relationship" to deal with Russia, China and economic instability.

During talks at the White House on June 8 (local time), US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reached an agreement on promoting bilateral relations in the fields of defense and renewable energy, to deal with competition from some other countries. President Biden also agreed to propose that the UK be considered an internal source for defense procurement, accelerating the development of next-generation weapons such as hypersonic missiles.

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