Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, will travel to Rome on Monday to meet Yang Jiechi, China’s top foreign policy official, in talks that are expected to focus on the war in Ukraine, the highest level US-China face-to-face meeting since the Russian invasion began.

The White House said Sullivan would lead a delegation of National Security Council and state department officials for what would be only his third meeting with Yang since the Biden administration took office in January last year.

“This meeting is taking place in the context of Russia’s unjustified and brutal war against Ukraine and as China has aligned itself with Russia to advance their own vision of the world order,” said one person familiar with the agenda, adding that they would discuss the impact of the Russian invasion on “regional and global security”.