China, U.S. vow closer cooperation on counter-narcotics, cybersecurity, repatriation

China and the United States are going to have closer cooperation in areas of counter-narcotics, cybersecurity and repatriation, according to an intergovernmental joint statement released on Friday.

The joint statement outlined main outcomes of the first China-U.S. Law Enforcement and Cybersecurity Dialogue which was held on Wednesday.

In the statement, the two sides expressed their intention to enhance bilateral cooperation on narcotics control and enforcement, including exchanging information on drug trafficking, combating illicit drug production, and sharing tracking information for packages to identify individuals and criminal drug-trafficking networks.

China and the United States gave a nod to continue the implementation of their consensus reached in 2015 on China-U.S. cybersecurity cooperation, including the agreement that neither country's government will conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property.

The two sides also intended to make a full use of the established hotline mechanism for addressing urgent cyber-crime and network protection issues and to communicate timely at the leadership and working levels.

Meanwhile, both sides agreed to develop a repeatable process to verify the identity of illegal immigrants in a timely manner.

The dialogue was co-chaired by visiting Chinese State Councilor Guo Shengkun, also minister of public security, and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Acting Secretary for Homeland Security Elaine Duke.

The meeting is one of four high-level communication mechanisms established during the Mar-a-Lago meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump at Palm Beach in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida on April 6-7, 2017.