NEW YORK, February 19. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that during his meeting with Wang Yi, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, he told him about the importance of maintaining direct channels of communication between Washington and Beijing.

"I underscored the importance of having direct lines of communication, the importance of continuing to engage in diplomacy between our countries. I think this is something that the world expects of us. They expect us to manage this relationship responsibly. So it’s important that we had that opportunity this evening here in Munich," he said in an interview with NBC after the meeting with Wang Yi.

Blinken also said that Wang Yi did not apologize for the incident involving a Chinese balloon in US airspace during their meeting. "I don’t want to characterize what he said. I don’t think that would be appropriate, although I can tell you no, there was no apology," he said. According to Blinken, he told Wang Yi that [US] sovereignty and international law were violated in the balloon incident. "I told him quite simply that was unacceptable and can never happen again," Blinken added.

The United States fears that China is allegedly considering giving Russia lethal weapons, Blinken stressed. He said that providing "lethal support" to Russia would have "serious consequences [for Beijing] in our [China-US] relationship.".