Trump: US-China ties very important, open to more collaboration

US-China relations are very important, and the US is willing to ramp up cooperation with China to promote more positive progress in bilateral ties, US President Donald Trump told visiting Chinese top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Washington on Friday.

In his talks with Chinese State Councilor Yang, Trump said he agreed that the two sides should follow through the consensuses and outcomes reached in the Beijing summit between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November.

Trump said his state visit to China was a very successful one, according to a press release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Saturday.

Trump asked Yang to convey his greetings to Xi, who had asked Yang to convey his sincere greetings to Trump.

In their talks, Yang said the two countries should increase coordination in key international and regional issues, including the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, and properly manage and control their differences and sensitive issues to ensure bilateral relations yield more positive outcomes in the new year.

Yang said he hopes the two sides will follow through the consensus and outcomes achieved by the two presidents during their Beijing meeting, and commit to expanding trade, military, law enforcement, counter-narcotics and subnational exchanges and cooperation.

The two sides should maintain close contact and make the second round of the four cabinet-level dialogues between China and the US a success.

On Thursday, Yang and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson agreed that the two countries will hold next Diplomatic & Security Dialogue during the second quarter of 2018, and that the second round of dialogues on the economic, social and people-to-people exchanges, and law enforcement and cyber security will be held within the year.

The four high-level dialogue mechanisms were established by the two presidents during their Mar-a-Lago meeting last April at Palm Beach, Florida.

Yang was on a two-day visit to Washington that began on Thursday.

He also met with White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster and Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, on Friday.

They had an exchange of views on strengthening bilateral ties and cooperation on international issues, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry release.

Before Friday’s meeting, Yang met Trump in the White House at least twice last year -- in March and June 2017, respectively.

Yang’s two-day visit came at a time when Beijing and Washington are experiencing a series of challenges since the end of last year.

During the visit, Yang told both Trump and Tillerson that keeping the positive momentum of the China-US relations is in line with the fundamental interests of the two peoples and the common aspirations of international society.

While announcing Yang’s US visit, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on June 6 in Beijing that both China and the US have expressed a willingness to maintain and further strengthen contacts and exchanges in various aspects.