Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to China to meet with Beijing’s senior officials this week, the State Department announced Wednesday.

During the trip, he’ll discuss the “importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage” the relationship between the two countries, the statement said, which have become increasingly fraught in recent months.

Blinken, who will leave on Friday and return Wednesday, will also raise “issues of concern, global and regional matters, and potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges.”