Steve Daines

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(Bloomberg) — Senator Steve Daines expressed his appreciation toward Beijing for encouraging Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as the US searches for an off-ramp to a nine-week war that’s roiled global energy markets.

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“I want to thank you for the meeting that you had yesterday with the Iranian Foreign Minister,” Daines told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting on Thursday morning in Beijing.

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“You are working to de-escalate tensions, to bring peace to the Middle East, to open up the Strait of Hormuz,” Daines said. “I want to thank you for your personal effort yesterday to that end, to help us bring together a peaceful outcome from the current conflict in Iran.”

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Daines, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is this week leading a bipartisan congressional delegation on a trip to China. The group has already stopped in Shanghai to visit technology firms and is now meeting top Chinese officials in the capital.

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The visit comes a week before Donald Trump is expected to travel to Beijing to hold a summit with Xi Jinping. That high-stakes trip has already been delayed once over the war in Iran, which is expected to be a major topic in their discussions. They are also set to address pain points between the world’s largest economies, including sanctions and trade barriers.

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During his meeting with Wang, Daines called for more purchases of Boeing aircrafts. “We hope when our two leaders meet next week, perhaps we could see some more Boeing airplanes purchased,” he said.

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China’s top diplomat reiterated that while there have been “twists and turns” in the bilateral relationship, the two countries have achieved some level of stability thanks to “heads of state diplomacy.”

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Daines served as an intermediary during the last trade war, holding high-level meetings in 2019 with officials in Beijing, including Xi’s top negotiator at the time, Liu He. He is also a rare US politician with experience in the country, having worked in China and Hong Kong for six years in the 1990s as a Procter & Gamble Co. executive.

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Last year, Daines traveled to China for the China Development Forum and met with Premier Li Qiang. He was joined by top US executives from Boeing Co., Cargill Inc., FedEx Corp., Pfizer Inc., and Qualcomm Inc.

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Xi has met with US political leaders before. In 2023, the Chinese president welcomed a bipartisan delegation led by Senator Chuck Schumer, as well as California Governor Gavin Newsom, as Beijing and Washington prepared for a leaders’ meeting in San Francisco.

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During a Tuesday meeting with Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng, Daines said he hoped to promote greater stability, “respect and reciprocity in the relationship.”

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The Montana senator also underscored the importance of more lawmaker visits, noting there have been only a handful of congressional delegations since 2020, compared with about 60 between 2010 and 2019.

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Other legislators on the trip include senators Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, Republican Deb Fischer from Nebraska, Republican Mike Lee from Utah and Republican Jerry Moran from Kansas.

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—With assistance from Allen Wan.