China and the United States will hold the fifth round of strategic dialogue from Jan. 17 to 18 in China with the consents of the two countries, announced by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu at a regular press conference on Thursday.

 

Deputy Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo and the US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte will co-chair the dialogue, Jiang said.

 

"The two sides will continue to have an in-depth exchange of the views on Sino-US relations and the international and regional issues of common concerns based on the previous four dialogues," she said.

 

The dialogue mechanism, established in accordance with the consensus reached in 2004 between President Hu Jintao and US President George W. Bush, is an important platform for the two countries to communicate on strategic and political level.

 

The first strategic dialogue was held in Beijing in August of 2005.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2008)