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China, US to deepen parliamentary exchanges

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-14 22:39

WASHINGTON - China's National People's Congress (NPC) and the US Senate wrapped up their annual meeting under a parliamentary conference mechanism in Washington Thursday with an agreement to further deepen inter-parliamentary exchanges.

At the invitation of the US Senate, an NPC delegation, headed by NPC Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Lu Yongxiang, arrived here Wednesday and held talks with US Senate Conference Mechanism Co-chairmen Patty Murray and Christopher Bond Thursday.

The delegation also met with Senate President Pro Tempore Daniel Inouy and Representatives Rick Larson and Charles Boustany, co-chairmen of the US-China Working Group in the House of Representatives.

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During the meetings, Lu said China and the United States were influential countries and a healthy and stable growth of bilateral relationship was not only in the interests of both countries but conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

Lu said China was willing to work with the US to earnestly implement consensus reached between Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President Barack Obama and further promote growth of a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship between the two countries.

He said both sides should abide by the principles and spirits of the three joint communiques between the two countries and the joint statement issued by the two sides during President Obama's visit to China last November, strengthen dialogues, exchanges and cooperation in all fields, respect mutual core interests and major concerns, and handle differences and sensitive issues properly.

The vice-chairman stressed that Taiwan and Tibet-related issues were among the core interests of China because they were concerned with China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Lu urged the US Congress to understand and support China's positions and concerns on Taiwan and Tibet-related issues, and handle them with caution to safeguard the overall bilateral relationship.

The US side said it was very important for the US and China to strengthen dialogues, consultation and cooperation in order to deal with various global challenges and international and regional issues.

They said the US Congress attached great importance to the growth of the relationship with China and supported exchanges and cooperation between the two countries in a wide range of areas.

They said the US side was well aware of China's positions and concerns on Taiwan and Tibet and would handle differences between the two countries in a proper manner.

Both sides believed the conference mechanism between the NPC and the US Senate was an important platform for inter-parliamentary exchanges between the two countries and agreed to further consolidate and improve the mechanism so that it could play a greater role in facilitating inter-parliamentary friendly exchanges and the healthy and stable growth of bilateral relations.

The two sides also discussed global and regional issues of mutual concern.