Obama meets Chinese envoys, hailing strategic, economic dialogue

WASHINGTON, July 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama met here Tuesday with Chinese President Hu Jintao's special representatives for the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue, saying the mechanism conducive to addressing the global financial crisis.

At the meeting in the White House following the conclusion of the two-day dialogue, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan delivered an oral message from Hu to Obama, in which Hu said the dialogue further enhanced mutual understanding and trust, and expanded bilateral exchange and cooperation.

"The China-U.S. relations are at a new historic point and facing with new opportunities," Hu said in the message, adding that he would like to make joint efforts with Obama to build a positive, comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

Obama said both countries made extensive discussions on a broad range of issues during the dialogue, which helped the two sides effectively address the ongoing financial crisis and achieve balanced economic growth.

These will benefit not only the United States and China, but also the whole world, Obama said.

The U.S. president also expressed his hope that the two countries could deepen cooperation in various fields, including promoting the reform of the international financial system, maintaining global financial stability, jointly addressing development issues and conducting constructive dialogue on clean energy.

Wang said the two countries had an in-depth exchange of views during the past two days on the strategic, long-term and overarching issues on bilateral relations, and reached broad consensus.

"China is ready to join hands with the U.S. side to help the mechanism make more contributions to the bilateral ties," he said.

Echoing Wang's remarks, State Councilor Dai Bingguo said the dialogue "yields encouraging outcomes" under the guideline set by the two heads of state.

"Practice has proven that the strategic and economic dialogue, as an important platform for China-U.S. cooperation, will play an important role for the healthy and steady development of the bilateral ties," he said.

Dai said China and the United States share common interests and a broad scope of cooperation in the complicated and ever-changing international economic and political situation.

"China will handle the bilateral ties in the strategic and long-term view, take the interests and concerns of both sides into account and forge ahead the positive, comprehensive cooperation," the state councilor said.

Dai told Obama that President Hu looked forward to meeting with him in the September G20 summit in Pittsburgh and extended welcome to Obama's first China visit this year.

Calling China a great country and the U.S.-China relations one of the most important partnerships in the 21st century, Obama said he will further push forward U.S.-China relations together with Hu, making it benefit both peoples and the future generations.

Obama also appreciated China's positive role on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and Iran nuclear issue.

Jointly launched by Hu and Obama in April, the China-U.S. Economic and Strategic Dialogue is a reincarnation of a biannual strategic economic dialogue set up by the two countries in 2006 and a vice-ministerial strategic dialogue launched in 2005.

Wang co-chaired the "Economic Track" of the dialogue with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, while Dai co-chaired the "Strategic Track" with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.