Chinese president calls on China, U.S. to nourish friendship between people

Beijing, May 3 (Xinhua-ANI): Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday called on China and the United States to nourish friendship between the two peoples.

Hu made the remark when addressing the opening session of the fourth round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues (S andED) in Beijing.

"To build a new type of relations between China and the United States, we need to nourish our friendship," he said, noting that friendship between people holds the key to growing good relations between states.

He said the two sides should actively promote exchanges between Chinese and Americans from all walks of life and encourage greater public participation in the cause of promoting China-U.S. friendship and cooperation.

"I am glad to note that the third meeting of the China-U.S. High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange will be held at the same time of the fourth round of the S andED," he said.

He hoped that this meeting will further enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

Meanwhile, Vice Premier Wang Qishan also called for sincerity and action from China and the United States so as to further strengthen economic cooperation between the two sides amid a "complex" and "grim" world economic situation.

Wang made the remarks when addressing the opening session of the fourth round of China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogues (S andED), which kicked off Thursday in Beijing.

"I hope the two sides will take the current round of dialogues as an opportunity to consider both immediate and long-term interests, further advance our cooperation in the economic, trade, investment, financial, infrastructural and other fields," Wang said at the joint opening session of the S andED.

Wang said that he hoped the two sides would step up communication and coordination under the G20 and other multilateral frameworks, translate the agreement of presidents of the two countries into concrete outcomes, and jointly promote strong, sustainable and balanced economic growth of both countries and the world at large.

The S andED was initiated in 2009. Wang said that since its establishment, 151 outcomes have been achieved in the economic cooperation between China and the United States.

The two sides have deepened macroeconomic, trade and investment, fiscal and financial cooperation, worked together to meet various challenges, including the global financial crisis and the European debt crisis, and jointly pushed forward global economic governance reform.

"What we have done has played an important role in promoting economic growth and job creation in our two countries," Wang said.

He said that the wide-ranging dialogue mechanism is "pragmatic and productive" in that it has accommodated respective concerns and avoided the "politicization" of economic issues to the greatest extent possible.

He said the S andED has demonstrated the mutually beneficial nature of bilateral cooperation, and has upheld the common interests of the people of both countries in terms of economic relations.

Speaking at the opening session, the vice premier also referred to a recent meeting between President Hu Jintao and President Barack Obama in Seoul, and a successful visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping to the United States.

Wang said that the top leaders have reaffirmed the strategic goal of building a China-U.S. cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit. (Xinhua-ANI)