The mechanism of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) has greatly promoted exchanges and cooperation between the two countries, a senior Chinese official said Monday.
In an article published on Foreign Policy's website, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said that the S&ED mechanism has kept growing since its launch in 2009, especially since 2013 when Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed to work together to build a new type of major-country relationship.
Yang and Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang are to co-chair the seventh S&ED on Tuesday and Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew.
"With over 700 deliverables achieved so far, this mechanism is playing an increasingly positive role in bringing about closer exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States," Yang wrote.
He said that China and the United States currently maintain close communication and cooperation in a wide range of areas, including the fight against terrorism, the prevention of the spread of weapons of mass destruction, solutions to regional hotspot issues, the fight against transnational crimes, and the prevention of the outbreak of epidemics.
Economic ties between the two countries have kept booming in the past decades, with healthy two-way trade and investment, he noted.
Yang also highlighted the two countries' cooperation within regional and global institutions, such as the Group of 20 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Moreover, the two countries have maintained close coordination over the Iranian nuclear issue, the Korean nuclear issue, South Sudan and climate change, Yang said.
After 36 years of diplomatic engagement, China and the United States now have more and more converging interests. "Our bilateral ties are assuming greater strategic significance as well as global influence. Under these new circumstances, the number of areas where our countries should and could work together has dramatically increased, not decreased," he wrote.
Saying China is ready to work with the United States to build a new type of major-country relationship, Yang called on the two sides to work together to deepen strategic communication, enhance mutual trust, avoid miscalculations, properly manage differences and sensitive issues, and expand exchanges and results-oriented cooperation across the board.
On the upcoming S&ED, Yang said it will focus on reinforcing cooperation in counterterrorism, nonproliferation, military ties, law enforcement, climate change, energy and environment, science and technology, the Iranian and Korean Peninsula nuclear issues, and exchanges and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific.
"I look forward to working with Secretary of State John Kerry to make this dialogue as productive as it could be in order to prepare for Xi's state visit to the United States in September and inject more positive energy to the growth of China-U.S. relations," Yang wrote.
