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China US prepare for landmark talks this summer

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-02 17:02

BEIJING - China and the United States are ratcheting up efforts to prepare for strategic and economic talks this summer as US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner continues his visit to Beijing.

"We welcome your first trip here as US Treasury chief, with a mission to lay the groundwork for the first China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told Geithner at the start of their meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Chinese Primier Wen Jiabao meets with visiting US Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner in Beijing, on June 2, 2009. [Xinhua]

President Hu Jintao will meet with Geithner later Tuesday.

The new dialogue mechanism came out of the first meeting between Hu and President Barack Obama in April in London.

Its strategic track will be chaired by Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while the economic track will be chaired by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Geithner.

"Wang Qishan and Geithner agreed to make full preparations and ensure the dialogue is a success," said a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry Monday.

In an hour-long meeting with Geithner Monday, Wang said, "The major task of the dialogue is to address the global economic slowdown.

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"We will send a message that China and the United States are cooperating substantively to get over the difficult times, which will help boost confidence, promote global financial stability and economic recovery," Wang said.

Geithner told Wang, "The world is going through an exceptionally challenging period now and I think the world has a huge stake in our two countries working closely together to lay a foundation for recovery."

Neither side announced the date of the upcoming talks, but said it would take place in Washington D.C. this summer.

Earlier Tuesday, Geithner visited Beijing's Capital Museum, which is partly powered by solar energy, generated by panels manufactured by Michigan-based Uni-Solar Company.

Geithner also met with representatives of eight US clean energy companies with branches in China at the museum, pledging to learn from China and other countries to improve energy efficiency.

"The core part of the US-China cooperation will be on the energy part. We expected it to be the central part of the new strategic and economic dialogue we just put in place," Geithner said.

"The world is gonna be watching what we do together as countries in this area, as they are watching us cooperate to help resolve the global recession of financial crisis." he told the business people before heading for meetings with the Chinese leadership.