China, US ready for security talks

The inaugural China-US Diplomatic and Security Dialogue (D&SD) will be held in Washington on June 21, according to an announcement on Thursday by the US Department of State and Department of Defense.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will host Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and General Fang Fenghui, chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s Joint Staff Department, along with members of the US delegation and their Chinese coounterparts for the D&SD, according to the announcement.

This new, high-level framework for negotiations was launched by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago on April 7 to expand areas of cooperation while narrowing differences on key diplomatic and security issues, the announcement said.

During their first informal summit in April, the two presidents agreed to elevate the existing bilateral talks to reflect the importance of making progress on issues.

They newly established highlevel framework for negotiations — China-US Comprehensive Dialogue — will be overseen by the two presidents. It will include four pillars: a diplomatic and security dialogue; a comprehensive economic dialogue; a law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue; and a social and cultural issues dialogue.

It is expected that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will be a key topic at the talk next week.

China has proposed a “dual suspension” approach to address the issue. That is for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities and for the US and Republic of Korea to suspend their large-scale military drills.

In Beijing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang stressed that China has been implementing relevant resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council.