US , China working hard to build cooperative partnership

The United States and China are working hard to build a cooperative partnership, by exploring the areas of enhancing bilateral cooperation and continuing to hold candid and constructive talks on resolving disagreements, a senior U.S. official said Monday. "And of course in the (Asia-Pacific) region we also have a hugely consequential relationship with China. With China we're working hard to build a cooperative partnership," said Daniel Russel, the newly-appointed U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, in his first public speech since assuming office early the month. The Obama administration "has placed a premium on trying to build a cooperative partnership with China through direct and high-level dialogue," in the past four and half years, Russel told reporters at the Foreign Press Center. "This is an ongoing project. It continues, and it will continue," he added. Russel, who was senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council before appointed to the new position, said he has been involved deeply and in multiple stage of his careers in the U.S.-China relationship. The U.S. engagement with China is one of three pillars of Obama administration's Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy, he said, noting the two sides have been holding candid and constructive dialogue on deepening bilateral cooperation and resolving differences. Russel lauded the just-concluded fifth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), held on July 10-11 in Washington, for making "continued progress" on various issues of mutual concern, such as Iran, Korean Peninsula, Syria, climate change, maritime security, cyberspace, and military ties, just to name a few. Such high-level dialogue "really underscore the global reach and the global impact of cooperation between the U.S. and China, particularly as the world's two largest economies," the senior official said. "I think this time, we really showed the breadth of our engagement and the continued strides that we are making in expanding meaningful cooperation on issues that are genuinely important to both of our people, to the region, and the world, as well as progress in managing the areas where we have real disagreements," he said. By holding candid dialogue on areas of disagreement, the two sides want "to make sure that we understand the motivations and the objectives of the other side." This was the spirit in which U.S. President Barack Obama invited his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to "an unprecedented and historic extended, informal meeting" in Sunnylands Estate in California in early June, and the two sides held the S&ED which covered a broad spectrum of issues, Russel said. Answering a question on the tensions between China and Japan over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea, Russel reiterated the position that the U.S. does not take a position on the overlapping claims, while strongly encouraging the relevant parties to resolve the dispute peacefully and diplomatically.