US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi voiced hopes of working together as they opened rare talks in Indonesia.

“In a relationship as complex and consequential as the one between the United States and China, there is a lot to talk about,” Blinken said as he and Wang posed before US and Chinese flags at a resort hotel on the island of Bali.

“We very much look forward to a productive and constructive conversation,” Blinken said.

Wang said that President Xi Jinping believed in cooperation as well as “mutual respect” between the world’s two largest economic powers.

“China and the United States are two major countries, so it is necessary for the two countries to maintain normal exchanges,” Wang said.

“At the same time, we do need to work together to ensure that this relationship will continue to move forward along the right track,” he said.

The meeting between the two, who were on the palm-fringed island for Group of 20 talks, is their first since October.