ROME, June 20. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China on June 18-19 helped stabilize relations between Beijing and Washington, Francesco Sisci, professor at the Institute of European Studies at the Beijing-based Renmin University of China, told TASS on Tuesday.

The expert, who is also a scientific advisor for the Limes geopolitical magazine, thinks that "the visit went better than expected." According to him, there will be "no improvement in relations between the countries in the short term, but probably no deterioration either." "The future remains very uncertain," he continued. Sisci thinks that in the long-term, two factors will be important: "the Ukrainian conflict (its timeframe and the conditions for it ending) and the US election."

"In the short-term, it remains to be seen what Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US will bring," he added.

On June 18-19, Blinken visited Beijing and met with members of the Chinese leadership. He said that a number of representatives from the US administration would also visit China in the near future. The secretary of state also said that he had invited Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang to visit Washington and the top Chinese diplomat had accepted the invitation. This was the first visit by the US’ top diplomat to China since October 2018.