U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry opened his home in Beacon Hill, Boston to China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi, the country's top diplomat. According to the State Department, Kerry and Yang held two days of "unprecedented and substantive" talks. "Unprecedented," partly because they were serious but informal. They remind one of the "shirt sleeves" dialogue between Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama in California. The informal format symbolizes the maturity of relations between the two countries. Their representatives can talk about serious matters in an informal and friendly manner, in their efforts to build a new type of major power relationship.

Yang served as Chinese ambassador to Washington more than ten years ago, so his meeting with Kerry is built on the foundation of personal ties that facilitate in-depth discussions.

During their talks, China and the United States pledged to overcome mistrust, manage their differences and cooperate on key issues like combating terrorism and the spread of the Ebola virus, to warm relations as President Obama prepares to travel to China next month to attend the informal APEC summit. He will meet with Xi Jinping, who is scheduled to make the keynote speech.

"There are many issues that China and the United States are cooperating on, even though we have some differences that we try to manage effectively", VOA quotes Kerry as saying. "And right now, particularly on Ebola, on Afghanistan, on the Democratic Republic of Korea, the North Korean nuclear situation, on Iran particularly, and on ISIL and counter-terrorism and on climate change. There are many issues."

There is no denying that tensions between the two countries have simmered in recent years especially over territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas and more recently over the "Occupy Central" movement in Hong Kong.

Kerry recognizes that the Asia Pacific region is very important and the United States and China need to work together to "shape a great future for the region."

That will probably be the main theme at the forth-coming APEC meeting in Beijing.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/zhaojinglun.htm

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