China to attend RIMPAC 2014: state councilor

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi announced Saturday that China, at the invitation of the United States, will attend the Rim of the Pacific exercises (RIMPAC) in 2014.

Yang made the announcement after the June 7-8 summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama at the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, California.

During the talks, both Xi and Obama stressed the significance to improve and develop bilateral military relations, vowing to build a new type of military relations between China and the United States, said the Chinese state councilor.

Meanwhile, the two countries agreed to broaden bilateral interests and enhance the cooperation in fields like economy and trade, investment, energy, environment, culture as well as local-level exchanges.

Yang added that China and the United States also pledged to step up cooperation and consultation on issues of climate change and cyber security, and make full use of the working groups from both sides.

He also said the two leaders will make jointly efforts for achieving pragmatic outcomes at the next meetings of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue as well as the high-level China-U.S. Consultation on People-to-People Exchange scheduled for this summer.

Chinese foreign and defense ministers will visit the United States at the invitations of the U.S. side at appropriate times, according to Yang.