‘Trump looks forward to China visit’
BEIJING: President Donald Trump “looks forward” to a future visit to China, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday in Beijing.
Trump places “a very high value on the communications that have already occurred” between the two presidents, Tillerson said, referring to a phone conversation between Xi and Trump in February.
“Through further dialogue, we will achieve a greater understanding that will lead to a strengthening of the ties between China and the US, and set the tone for our future relationship of cooperation,” he said during his meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People.
Xi, in turn, said he would welcome a Trump visit to China.
The two leaders are expected to meet for the first time next month.
Xi said Beijing and Washington must build mutual trust and increase their knowledge of each other, as the countries had more common interests than differences and cooperation was “the only right choice”.
“We have to carefully deal with and control sensitive issues and push USChina relations from a new start to a healthy and stable future,” Xi said on the final day of Tillerson’s East Asia tour, which focused on dealing with the nuclear threat from the North.
Tillerson’s talks in Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing were meant to help shape a different approach to US policy on Pyongyang.
“Let me be clear: The policy of strategic patience has ended,” he said Friday in Seoul, adding that all options – including army action – were on the table.
On Saturday in Beijing, he adopted a slightly softer stance, saying that China and the US were committed to doing everything they could to prevent “any type of conflict from breaking out”.
China and the US had agreed to “work together to see if we cannot bring the government in Pyongyang to a place where they want to make a course correction and move away from their development of their nuclear weapons”, Tillerson said. – dpa