According to a Chinese government announcement translated into Youdao, Microsoft President Brad Smith met with China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao on Wednesday to talk about a variety of topics, including trade relations between Washington and Beijing and artificial intelligence.

The meeting highlights China’s efforts to reaffirm its support for American companies in the face of ongoing tensions with the United States and its efforts to boost its economy.

Notably, Smith and Wang’s engagement follows the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden last month, which observers said demonstrated the two countries’ attempts to cooperate in potential areas. It also conveyed a desire to enhance the surroundings for international companies.

According to a statement from the nation’s commerce ministry, Wang stated during the meeting that China is dedicated to offering better services for foreign businesses. According to the readout, Microsoft is expected to have a “constructive role” in China-US artificial intelligence cooperation. This is according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Microsoft is considered one of the major players in the artificial intelligence space, especially in light of its purported multibillion-dollar investment made earlier this year in OpenAI, the company that developed ChatGPT.

China’s own tech behemoths, such as Tencent, Baidu, and Alibaba, have also been releasing competing products and their own AI models.

For the past few years, technology has been a source of contention between China and the United States. China’s access to vital technologies, such as semiconductors, has been restricted by Washington, and recent U.S. export restrictions have targeted Nvidia chips, which are used to train AI models.

A White House readout states that during the Biden-Xi meeting, the two leaders “affirmed the need to address the risks of advanced AI systems and improve AI safety through U.S.-China government talks.”