REMARKS: SECRETARY KERRY AND CHINESE PRESIDENT JINPING

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks Before Meeting With Chinese President Xi Jinping
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Great Hall of the People
Beijing, China
May 17, 2015

PRESIDENT XI: (Via interpreter) Secretary Kerry, welcome to China. I understand that you are leaving China this afternoon, but still I have to extend a big, warm welcome to you here to Beijing. Your visit happens at an important time for both sides to conduct timely communication regarding this relationship. And Mr. Secretary, I understand that during your tenure in the Senate and in your current capacity as the Secretary of State of the United States, you are both committed to growing China-U.S. relationship. I wish to express my appreciation for what you have done.

In my view, China-U.S. relationship has remained stable on the whole. When President Obama visited China last November, the two of us had in-depth exchanges and discussions, and we reached an important agreement on growing China-U.S. relationship. On my part, I look forward to my visit to the United States in the coming September this year upon the invitation of President Obama. I look forward to continuing to grow this relationship with President Obama and bring China-U.S. relationship to a new height along the track of a new model of major country relationship between our two countries.

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, Mr. President, thank you very much for your welcome. Let me especially begin by saying that I know you and your team aren’t normally here on a weekend and especially on Sunday. I know your entire team and you personally made a very special exception in order to be able to work out my schedule, and I want to express my deep appreciation to you for doing that. I also want to thank your team for the excellent discussions we had yesterday in-depth. We particularly laid out the agenda for your summit with President Obama, which we are very much looking forward to.

SECRETARY OF STATE KERRY MAKES REMARKS WITH CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Remarks With Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Top of Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Great Hall of the People
Beijing, China
April 13, 2013


PRESIDENT XI: (Via interpreter) Mr. Secretary, I want to welcome you to China. It is a great pleasure to see you again. I remember your last visit to China was in your capacity as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee back in May of 2009, and we met during that visit.

I want to take this opportunity to express my congratulations to you on being appointed to this very important position. You are a senior political leader in the United States and you have been committed to enhancing the United States relations with China when you were a senator and now as the U.S. Secretary of State. I want to express my appreciation of your efforts.

Mr. Secretary, you are the second U.S. cabinet member that I met in one month as Chinese President, and not long ago I met with the visiting Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew. I believe these exchanges show we both recognize the importance of China-U.S. relations and pay high attention to the further growth of China-U.S. ties.

The current China-U.S. relationship is at a new historical stage and has got off to a good start. On the very day I was elected Chinese President, I talked on the phone with President Barack Obama, during which the two sides reaffirmed our commitment to developing the cooperative partnership and building a new type of major country relations between the two countries. And this has reaffirmed the strategic nature and the direction of development of China-U.S. relations.

I believe your visit to China this time will give a boost to the positive momentum of China-U.S. relations.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you. Mr. President, thank you very, very much. Thank you for receiving me. Thank you for the generous reception of your time. Minister Wang Yi and I had a very productive morning, and I’ll have a chance to meet with the Premier a little later, and then subsequently my friend Yang Jiechi and I will spend some time together this evening. So I thank you for your government’s representation.

If I can just answer your comments quickly by saying, first, President Obama sends his greetings, and he and I share the hope that this can be even a further definition of the model relationship which you have often talked about. And may I also extend to you from President Obama and the American people our congratulations to you on the assumption of your new responsibilities and your new government.

Mr. President, this is obviously a critical time with some very challenging issues, issues on the Korean peninsula, the challenge of Iran and nuclear weapons, Syria, the Middle East, and economies around the world that are in need of a boost. So I think that we’re meeting at a very, very key time, and I very much look forward to our discussion about how you see your vision of a stronger partnership with the United States taking shape. We are very anxious to fill that out and to have that discussion today, and I look forward through the rest of our afternoon to being able to really understand the roadmap ahead, the one that you envision and the one that hopefully we can contribute to.

So thank you for welcoming me here, and I appreciate the opportunity to have this kind of frank discussion with you.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE HAGEL CONGRATULATES NEW CHINESE DEFENSE MINISTER WANQUAN

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMET OF DEFENSE
Hagel Congratulates New Chinese Defense Minister
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 3, 2013 – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel offered best wishes to China’s new defense minister in a phone call yesterday, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said.

In a statement released after the call, Little said Hagel congratulated Gen. Chang Wanquan on his new position.

The leaders both expressed their intention to work together to continue to build a military-to-military relationship that serves the vision of both President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Little said.

"The secretary discussed the importance of focusing on areas of sustained dialogue, practical areas of cooperation, and risk-reducing measures," the press secretary added, and emphasized the growing threat to the United States and its allies posed by North Korea's aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Hagel also expressed to Chang the importance of sustained U.S.-China dialogue and cooperation on these issues, he said.

Little noted that Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will visit China later this month, and said Hagel told Chang he looks forward to hearing the results of the visit.

The secretary also invited Chang to visit the United States later this year to continue senior-level military-to-military consultations, Little added.