US-Chinese foreign ministers meet amid high tensions in Korean peninsula

United Nations:  Amid escalating tensions over North Korea’s nuclear programme, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held talks with his American counterpart Rex Tillerson to discuss cooperation in dealing with the “challenge” of the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

The two leaders agreed to reduce tensions in the Korean peninsula through dialogue as they met on the sidelines of a Security Council ministerial meeting. The meeting came just hours before North Korea test-fired another ballistic missile but it “failed” to go beyond its territory.

“All parties have reiterated the goal of denuclearisation and have promised to strictly implement relevant Security Council resolutions and to resolve the issue through peaceful dialogue and negotiation so as to ease tensions as soon as possible,” a report on the Wang-Tillerson meeting in the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency said.

During the meeting, Tillerson was quoted as saying that the two sides have launched cooperation in a constructive way on international and regional issue,s including the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula, by which the United States was encouraged.

The United States was looking forward to working with China to hold high-level dialogues in various areas, enhance communication, strengthen cooperation and confront challenges, Tillerson said.

Noting that China and the United States have established four high-level dialogue mechanisms, Wang said that the two sides should move forward to reach more consensuses and manage differences well so as to ensure the healthy and stable development of ties.

Wang said that the historical meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida this month was a “complete success”.

China-US relations have thus achieved a smooth transition with a good start, a positive sign that the two sides are willing to cooperate for the well-being of the two peoples and to jointly contribute to world peace, Wang said. The two sides need to cooperate closely to make preparations for Trump’s state visit to China this year, he said.