A Chinese delegation arrived in Washington on Saturday to attend the first round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic dialogues.
More than 100 Chinese officials, led by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, landed at the Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., and were welcomed by U.S. State Department senior officials and Chinese embassy officials.
The first round of the strategic and economic dialogues, which will be held on July 27-78 in Washington, is a reincarnation in a broader format of the Strategic Economic Dialogue set up by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who used the forum to engage Beijing on an array of issues critical to longer-term bilateral relations.
The new mechanism was jointly launched by Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama during their meeting in London in April.
On the U.S. side, the dialogues will be headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner.
According to Chinese Foreign Ministry, Dai and Clinton will co- chair the "Strategic Track" of the dialogue, while Wang and Geithner will co-chair the "Economic Track."
Obama will address the opening session of the dialogue, and meet with the Chinese delegation after the dialogue.
During the meetings, the two sides will have extensive discussions on issues of strategic, overall and long-term significance in order to "deepen understanding, enhance mutual trust and promote cooperation," said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman at a press conference earlier this month.
According to a Chinese finance official, China will explicitly raise at the "Economic Track" dialogue the hope that the United States "should make responsible economic policies, including financial and monetary policies, to maintain stability of the dollar and safeguard safety of China's assets."
On the agenda of the "Strategic Track" dialogues, Chinese Foreign Ministry has said that the two sides would discuss the resumption of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue for a peaceful resolution.
(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2009)
