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China, U.S. pledge to foster ties

— PHOTO: AP

BONHOMIE: Chinese President Hu Jintao and his American counterpart George Bush on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday.

SINGAPORE: Chinese President Hu Jintao and his United States counterpart, George W. Bush, on Thursday affirmed their reciprocal commitment to advance the relationship between their countries.

The two leaders, who met in Sydney in the run-up to an Asia-Pacific summit there over the weekend, expressed their shared sentiments in a nuanced fashion, each emphasising the importance of different aspects of these ties.

In a diplomatic cameo of comments after the talks, Mr. Hu said he was “committed to further advance our constructive and cooperative relations.”

Describing the meeting as “a constructive and cordial conversation,” Mr. Bush said they exchanged ideas on “a lot of interests that we want to work together on.” He cited, in particular, their “desire to work together on climate change.”

Mr. Hu’s parallel response was that “the issue of climate change bears on the welfare of whole humanity and the sustainable development of the whole world.” The matter should, therefore, be “appropriately tackled through stronger international cooperation.”

Mr. Hu earlier spoke about the brass-tacks in this sensitive domain after his talks with the Asia-Pacific summit host and Australian Prime Minister, John Howard.

Mr. Hu maintained that “the United Nations Framework Convention should remain the main channel for the international efforts” to address climate change. Shining the spotlight on the grand sweep of relations between Washington and Beijing, Mr. Bush said Iran, North Korea, Sudan, the U.S.-China economic and trade ties, and currency and exchange rates in that bilateral context were discussed with Mr. Hu.

Striking an upbeat note on bilateral economic issues, Mr. Hu said “we both expressed a desire to work for the further growth of business and commercial sides” of the equation “through dialogue and consultations.”

In a transparent reference to some current controversies on the U.S.-China front, Mr. Bush said he appreciated the Chinese leader’s “quite articulate … comments … about product safety.” Religious freedom was another issue Mr. Bush raised. However, he made no public comment, for the second successive day, about China’s military profile and its recent anti-satellite test. Noting that the talks were “candid, friendly, sincere and cordial,” Mr. Hu said Mr. Bush “explicitly stated the consistent U.S. position of opposing any changes to the status quo in the situation across the Taiwan Straits.”

On a different plane, China and Australia agreed to begin a Strategic Dialogue and Mr. Howard said “the Trilateral Security Dialogue [involving Canberra, Washington, and Tokyo] is not directed at anyone.” Mr. Howard and Mr. Hu witnessed the signing of a $35-billion agreement for the supply of LNG by an Australian consortium to China.

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