US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Beijing on an important visit to get relations between the United States and China back on track after months of heightened tensions between the two countries, CNN reports.

US officials are presenting the trip as an attempt to reopen normal channels of communication with China in order to avoid conflict between the two powers.

“What we’re working to do on this trip is to really carry forward what President Biden and President Xi agreed to in Bali at the end of last year, which was to establish sustained, regular lines of communication at senior levels across our governments precisely so that we can make sure that we are communicating as clearly as possible to avoid, as best possible, misunderstandings and miscommunications,” Blinken said on Friday before his departure.

Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on Blinken's trip at a meeting last year in Bali. It was supposed to take place in February, but was postponed due to diplomatic and political confusion caused by the discovery of a downed Chinese spy balloon flying through the territory of the United States.