ExclusiveTop EU diplomat Kallas expected to visit Beijing in autumn amid deepest strains in years

It will be Kaja Kallas’ first face-to-face meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi since a bruising encounter in Brussels last summer

It would also mark Kallas’ first trip to Beijing since taking on her role in 2024.

The trip – with a date yet to be confirmed – would revolve around the bilateral “strategic dialogue”, a mostly annual format in which the sides discuss foreign and security policy issues.

High on the EU agenda will be hot topics such as China’s relations with Russia, the ongoing crises in the Middle East and the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait.

Insiders described the encounter as tense from the outset, with minor protocol mix-ups and a combative on-camera opening from Kallas in which she pressed Wang over China’s support for Russia.