China's health minister talks with US counterpart

China's health minister Ma Xiaowei said during a phone call with his US counterpart on Wednesday that China is willing to deepen cooperation with the United States in the field of healthcare and in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ma, head of the National Health Commission, first congratulated Xavier Becerra, US Secretary of Health and Human Services, for assuming the new post, according to a statement published on the commission's website.

Ma said Chinese and US health departments have maintained multi-sectoral, multi-channel and all-directorial cooperation for a long time. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, both parties have kept technical exchanges and communication on virus control work.

He added that China is willing to work with the United States to uphold the principle of no conflict, no confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, launch mechanism-based dialogues, boost collaboration between each country's technical institutions, and strengthen coordination efforts led by multilateral platforms, such as the World Health Organization and the Group of 20 (G20), as well as to build a global community of health for all.

Becerra said communication and cooperation in the field of healthcare between the two countries serve the interests of both sides, and consensus far outweighs differences.

He said the United States is also willing to step up mutual communication and to encourage cooperation between each party's medical research facilities and other technical institutions.

He added collaboration initiated by multilateral institutions should be strengthened, in order to jointly tackle the pandemic and other global challenges.

Xavier Becerra, former attorney general of California, was nominated for US Secretary of Health and Human services in December by the then US President-elect Joe Biden.