US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are scheduled to hold their first in-person meeting Friday in Malaysia amid heightened tensions surrounding trade, defence and other issues.

The meeting will take place on the margins of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting being held in the capital Kuala Lumpur, The Washington Post reported.

Although neither the US nor China are members of ASEAN, both countries have been actively courting Southeast Asian nations, despite many countries in the region remaining cautious about taking sides.

According to the Secretary of State’s public schedule, Rubio and Wang are set to speak late Friday afternoon.

On Thursday, Rubio expressed his intention to discuss Beijing’s support for Russia in the war in Ukraine with Wang.

“The Chinese clearly have been supportive of the Russian effort. I think that, generally, they’ve been willing to help them as much as they can without getting caught,” Rubio said shortly after holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Rubio, known as a China hawk during his 14 years as a Republican senator, was blacklisted by Beijing in 2020 and is still on its sanctions list. He last spoke with Wang by phone in January, shortly after assuming office as secretary of state.