Acting U.S. Secretary of State John Sullivan has met with a Chinese envoy, as the two nations move closer toward an all-out trade war.

Sullivan on Wednesday met Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai at the State Department in Washington.

After the meeting, the State Department said in a statement that both sides agreed on the importance of pursuing a “constructive U.S.-China relationship that produces meaningful results.”

The statement said that Sullivan stressed the need to restore “fairness and balance” in the economic relationship between the U.S. and China.

It added that the meeting also reaffirmed both countries’ commitment “to the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."