US-China Strategic, Economic Dialogue to be held in July

Washington: The US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue would be held in Washington in the month of July, an official announcement said on Saturday.

The five-day Dialogue from July 8-12 will focus on addressing the challenges and opportunities that both sides face on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global areas of immediate and long-term economic and strategic interest. The talks will follow up on the discussions of Secretary of State John Kerry, currently in China, and the last month`s China visit of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the announcement said. Kerry and Lew will be joined for the dialogue by their respective Chinese co-chairs, along with members of the Chinese delegation and their US colleagues. Meanwhile, the State Department has announced that Deputy Secretary Bill Burns will travel to Japan, China, Kazakhstan, South Korea and Mongolia from April 22 to 29. In Tokyo, Burns will "meet with senior Japanese officials to further our close and long-standing cooperation with Japan on a wide range of bilateral and regional issues." In Beijing from April 24-25, he will meet with senior Chinese officials to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual concern. On April 26, he will travel to Almaty to lead the US delegation to the "Heart of Asia" Conference and meet with senior officials and representatives from a number of participating governments, including Afghanistan and Kazakhstan. This is the third ministerial-level meeting of the Istanbul Process, which was established 18 months ago to foster greater regional political, security, and economic cooperation. Burns will arrive in Seoul on April 27 where he will meet senior South Korean officials and discuss a wide range of global, regional and bilateral issues, including North Korea. He will lead the US delegation to the seventh Ministerial of the Community of Democracies April 28-29, in Ulaanbaatar. PTI