US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick arrived in Beijing
on Monday night on a three-day visit to China.
During his visit, he will meet with Chinese leaders including
Premier Wen
Jiabao and Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing to exchange views on China-US relations and major
international and regional issues of common concern, according to
the Chinese Foreign
Ministry.
Zoellick will hold talks with Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo
to review the issues addressed during the December 2005 US-China
Strategic Dialogue that they led, and review preparations for the
next dialogue meeting later this year, according to a statement
posted on the official website of the US State Department.
The statement quoted Zoellick as saying that the US and China
are two large and important stakeholders in the international
system, and it is in their shared interest to listen to each
other.
"I believe it is important to stay continually engaged with my
Chinese colleagues," Zoellick said in the statement.
"I look forward to a good exchange of views in Beijing on
security and proliferation issues -- particularly in Northeast
Asia, and Iran -- the upcoming conference on Afghanistan in London,
China's efforts to promote internal openness and reform, and
China's recent white paper on Africa," he said.
The statement called Zoellick's visit to China "another step in
finding ways to enhanced cooperation between the United States and
China within the framework that Zoellick outlined in his September
21, 2005 speech in New York, in which he proposed that the United
States must step up efforts to make China a 'responsible
stakeholder' in the international system."
After Beijing, Zoellick will travel to Chengdu, capital of
southwestern Sichuan Province, where he will meet with senior local
government officials and visit the Chengdu Panda Research Base.
China and the US held two rounds of strategic talks in August
and December last year on issues including trade, intellectual
property rights protection, the Taiwan issue, bird flu, the nuclear
issue on the Korean Peninsula and the RMB exchange rate.
China is Zoellick's second leg of a three-nation tour covering
Japan, China and Switzerland. Zoellick will leave China for the
World Economic Forum meetings in Davos, Switzerland, on
Wednesday.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2006)