U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a press briefing Monday after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Watch Blinken's remarks in the video player above.
The White House said Blinken had "candid, substantive and constructive" conversations with Xi Jinping during his visit. The two sides said they agreed to "stabilize" badly deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but America's top diplomat left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries.
After meeting Xi, Blinken said China is not ready to resume military-to-military contacts, something the U.S. considers crucial to avoid miscalculation and conflict, particularly over Taiwan.
READ MORE: Blinken, Xi satisfied with progress after U.S.-China talks but more work to do
Still, China's main diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, Yang Tao, said he thought Blinken's visit to China "marks a new beginning."
Briefing reporters aboard Air Force One as President Joe Biden headed to California, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the talks "a good step forward."
"What we want is competition, not conflict. We've been very clear about that. But again, I think it is a, is a good step forward, we believe it's a good step forward for secretary to have been to have a constructive conversation with President Xi," Jean-Pierre said.
WATCH: Blinken holds 'constructive' talks with China's foreign minister
The two sides expressed a willingness to hold more talks, but there was little indication that either is prepared to bend from positions on issues including trade, Taiwan, human rights conditions in China and Hong Kong, Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea, and Russia's war in Ukraine.
Blinken said later that the U.S. set limited objectives for the trip and achieved them. He told reporters before leaving for a Ukraine reconstruction conference in London that he had raised the issue of military to military communications "repeatedly."
"It is absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications," he said. "This is something we're going to keep working on."