President Joe Biden hailed what he said was progress in restoring US-China ties after Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up two days of meetings in Beijing, including talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“He did a hell of a job,” Biden told reporters on a visit to California. “We’re on the right trail here.”

Asked if he felt the US had made progress, Biden responded: “I don’t feel. You know it’s been made. You don’t have to ask that,” he said. “You can ask how much progress was made.”

In response a question about whether he had spoken with Blinken, who is en route to London for a Ukraine recovery conference later this week, Biden told reporters he was communicating with him through National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Blinken is the highest-ranking US official to visit Beijing in five years as tensions have flared in recent months between the world’s two largest economies. The talks raise the prospect that the two sides can better normalise their relationship and could open the door to Xi speaking to Biden. The two leaders have not spoken since they met last year in Bali, Indonesia.

Russia’s war in Ukraine, North Korea and Taiwan were among the topics Blinken discussed with Xi, the US official told reporters Monday.

The two countries remain divided over many issues and there was no progress on restoring direct contacts between their militaries, something the US has been eager for amid increasing tensions between forces around Taiwan and elsewhere.

But the pair were in agreement about the need to “stabilise” relations between the nations, Blinken said.

China told Blinken that the United States should stop saying that China is a threat, end sanctions over China which are “illegal,” stop depressing China’s technological development and stop interfering in the Asian nation’s internal affairs, Chinese state television reported, citing Yang Tao, an official at the Foreign Ministry.

Along with trade and intellectual property disputes, the US and China remain at odds over human rights concerns and US limits on advanced technology.

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