Washington: The US and China have pledged
to deepen their cooperation in military and economic matters
and intensify their deliberations on a range of global and
regional issues including counter-terrorism, climate change
and South Asia.
Setting aside their differences on key issues like
Tibet, human rights and arms sales to Taiwan, leaders of the
two countries at the end of the two-day Strategic and Economic
Dialogue (S&ED) agreed that the military leaders of the two
countries would meet regularly under the newly created
"Strategic Security Dialogue".
In a joint statement, the US and China acknowledged
that the two sides share a wide range of common interests with
a shared goal of maintaining peace, stability, and prosperity
in the Asia-Pacific region, and decided to establish a
US-China consultation on the Asia-Pacific.
Before the next round of the S&ED, the two countries
decided to hold a new round of sub-dialogues on: policy
planning, Africa, Latin America, South Asia and Central Asia,
and to enhance bilateral coordination and cooperation on
regional and international issues.
Later addressing a joint news conference with Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
said the United States and China have made quite a bit of
progress in the last three dialogues.
"This is a work in progress. I think that for both of
our nations, with such different histories, cultures,
experiences, development models, political systems, it is
important that we continue intensive consultations," she said,
adding that the two countries now have a deeper understanding
of each other views.
Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo said the two sides
agreed to build a China-US partnership based on mutual respect
and mutual benefit.
"We agreed that we must act in accordance with the
spirit of the China-US joint statements, work to increase our
strategic mutual trust, enhance exchanges at higher levels,
have closer dialogue on international and regional issues, and
to further increase our people-to-people exchange," he said.
"Both of us agreed that we must increase our strategic
mutual trust and deepen our practical cooperation. The US had
reaffirmed that it welcomes a strong, successful, and a
prosperous China that plays a greater role in international
affairs, and it does not seek to contain China. It respects
China’s interests. And both sides reaffirmed their commitment
to a peaceful the Chinese side reaffirmed its commitment to
the road of peaceful development, and will not challenge the
United States interests," Dai said.
The two countries, Dai said, agreed that they will
work together in the Asia Pacific region so that they can
better coordinate with each other and better interact with
each other in the Asia Pacific.
"We agreed that Asia Pacific is broad enough to
accommodate the interests of China and of the United States,"
he said.
"We must work together in this region, work together
with other countries in this region to uphold peace, stability
in the Asia Pacific and to promote the sustained prosperity of
the Asia Pacific and achieve the common development of all
countries in this region so that the Pacific Ocean will become
a peaceful one. We agreed that we will set up a consultation
mechanism for Asia Pacific region," Dai said.
PTI
