China, US strengthen links in top-level talks

By Lydia Chen  |   2008-6-18  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

CHINA and the United States yesterday pledged to further expand cooperation as the two nations started high-level economic talks in Washington.

In his opening remarks at the fourth round of the Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue, Vice Premier Wang Qishan said both China and the America are facing a lot of challenges.

"Our cooperation is an irreversible and unstoppable current," Wang said. "China needs the United States and the United States needs China."

He stressed energy and environment as a new growth area for bilateral economic cooperation, where China and the US have many common interests.

The US and China must increase their cooperation on energy issues in the face of increased demand and record high oil prices, American Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said at the opening session held on the campus of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

"As the two largest net importers of oil, China and the United States face similar challenges as demand for energy increases," Paulson said.

China and the US will sign a 10-year cooperation agreement on energy and environmental issues during the two-day talks, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a press conference in Beijing yesterday.

On Monday, Chinese companiessigned deals worth US$13.6 billion with American counterparts.

The deals, hailed at two ceremonies attended by Wang and Commerce Minister Chen Deming in St Louis and Washington, covered 11 US products, including soybeans, energy-saving electronic goods, telecommunications products, airplane engines, mechanic facilities and semiconductors.

China also agreed to import 81,500 US-made automobiles and launch three investment projects in the US that totaled US$306 million, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its Website yesterday.