Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her two-day meeting with Chinese economic policy czar He Lifeng will include discussion of the increased use of security measures in commercial relations.

“We will also further our discussions on the use of economic tools for national security purposes,” Yellen said in remarks welcoming He to the meetings in San Francisco that started Thursday.

The engagement between the top US and China economic officials this week marks the next step in a series of talks that have sought to improve testy ties between the world’s two largest economies. In his own opening remarks, He emphasized the need for effective measures to bring economic and trade relations back on track.

The Biden administration’s policy toward China is geared toward defending and securing national security while stressing that the US isn’t trying to hold China back economically — a message that Chinese officials have criticized, given US export controls enacted last year that are designed to deprive China of key technologies. In recent months, Washington has also unveiled a plan to vet outbound investments.

Vice Premier He is expected to reiterate Chinese concerns over such policies. In his opening remarks, he said he would take the opportunity of the talks with Yellen to communicate key concerns.

The meetings between Yellen and He will help prepare the ground for an expected visit to the US by China’s President Xi Jinping for talks with counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit next week.

Tensions between the two geopolitical rivals were running high for much of the past year, over issues ranging from US export controls to Chinese military activity in the South China Sea and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

In her remarks on Thursday, Yellen reiterated the administration’s message that the US has no desire to decouple from China.

“A full separation of our economies would be economically disastrous for both our countries, and for the world,” Yellen said. “We seek a healthy economic relationship with China that benefits both countries over time,” she added.

After Yellen visited Beijing to meet with China’s new economic leadership team in July, the two countries established two working groups to discuss economic and financial issues. Vice Premier He on Thursday said that these mechanisms were delivering results, and he said that the two sides need to get relations back to a healthy and stable track.