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Talks with China Constructive: Assistant US Secretary of State
James Kelly, assistant US secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said on May 16 that his whole-day talks on May 15 with Chinese officials on the American missile defence program is constructive.
Kelly released a statement while departing Beijing for Hanoi to continue his mission to promote President Bush's missile defence system.
He said he met and talked with Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials on May 15, and had a ``good exchange of views". In the centerpiece of a full day of consultations, Kelly tried to explain four elements of President Bush's planned new framework for security: non-proliferation, counter-proliferation, missile defense, and an on-going review of US nuclear forces that will sharply reduce the numbers of such weapons.
``In particular, I stressed that our plans for a missile defense system would nor be a threat to China. Rather, our approaches intended to defend against threats or attacks from rogue states as well as from accidental or unauthorized launches," Kelly said.
Kelly admitted that the two countries still have differences of opinion (on NMD), however, adding their consultations were constructive and the two parties involved will continue dialogue on security issues.
Kelly also discussed other bilateral issues and the overall situation in the Asia-Pacific Region as well as areas of disagreement such as Taiwan and human rights.
``It was clear from these talks that we have many areas of shared interest. In order to build on these common interests, we agreed on the need to continue consultations on regional issues," Kelly said.
The two sides also discussed the status of the EP-3 and agreed to continue to work through diplomatic channels to secure the aircraft's return, Kelly said.
Source: China Daily
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