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BEIJING (AP) — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told China’s top diplomat on Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s administration is “very committed” to stabilizing relations between the world’s two biggest economies, as the countries seek to restart high-level contacts.

On his second day of talks in Beijing, Kerry met with the ruling Communist Party’s head of foreign relations Wang Yi, telling him Biden hoped the two countries could “achieve efforts together that can make a significant difference to the world.”

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Ties between the countries have hit a historic low amid disputes over tariffs, access to technology, human rights and China’s threats against self-governing Taiwan.

In his opening remarks, Wang said the sides had suffered from a lack of communication, but that China believes through renewed dialogue “we can find a proper solution to any problems.”

“Sometimes, small problems can become big problems,” Wang said, adding that dialogue must be conducted on an “equal basis.”

That was an apparent reference to U.S. criticism of China’s aggressive foreign policy, rights abuses against Muslim and Buddhist minorities and travel sanctions against officials ranging from the Beijing-appointed leader of Hong Kong to the country’s defense minister.

Coinciding with Kerry’s visit, former U.S. national security adviser and secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, arrived in Beijing this week and met with Defense Minister Li Shangfu on Tuesday.

China’s Defense Ministry quoted Li as praising the role the 100-year-old Kissinger played in opening up China-U.S. relations in the early 1970s, but said bilateral ties had hit a low point because of “some people on the American side who are not willing to meet China halfway.”

“We are constantly striving to establish stable, predictable and constructive China-U.S. relations and hope that the U.S. side will join with the Chinese side in consolidating the consensus of the two countries’ leaders and jointly advance the healthy and stable development of relations between our countries and their militaries,” Li was quoted as saying.

China broke off some mid- and high-level contacts with the Biden administration last August, including over climate issues, to show its anger with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan.

China claims the island as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if necessary, threatening to draw the U.S. into a major conflict in a region crucial to the global economy.

Contacts have only slowly been restored and China continues to refuse to restart dialogue between the People’s Liberation Army, the party’s military branch, and the U.S. Department of Defense.