Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi will visit Europe and the United States this month before attending a Group of 20 meeting in South Africa, Beijing said on Monday.
The announcement comes after Wang’s U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio said he would skip the G20 talks over an “anti-American” agenda.
US President Donald Trump has pulled his country out of multiple international organisations including the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council since taking office last month.
From February 12 to 17, Wang will visit Britain and Ireland and attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany before flying to Johannesburg for the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular briefing on Monday.
Wang intends to use the G20 meeting to “send a strong signal to the outside world to support multilateralism”, Guo said.
“The G20 should promote the spirit of partnership, work together to promote world economic growth, and guide global governance in a more just and reasonable direction,” he added.
In Munich, Wang will “share China’s position on major international issues,” according to a separate foreign ministry statement.
Wang will then chair a UN Security Council event in New York on “practising multilateralism, reforming and improving global governance”, according to the ministry.
