FOREIGN MINISTER YANG: (Via interpreter) Madam Secretary, on behalf of the Chinese Government, a warm welcome on your visit to China. Madam Secretary, we place high importance on your visit. Tomorrow, several Chinese leaders will have meetings with you. In recent years, the China-U.S. relationship has maintained stability and achieved development, and we have made important progress in some areas.
Maintaining the healthy and steady development of our relationship serves the fundamental interests of our two countries and two peoples and is conducive to stability, peace, and development in the Asia Pacific region and beyond. China stands ready to work with the U.S. side, guided by the joint vision of our two presidents to further push forward the China-U.S. cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit and to explore a new type of major country relationship.
This evening, I’d be happy to exchange views with you on how to further push forward our bilateral relationship and on some important international and regional issues. Again, warm welcome to China.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Minister Yang, thank you for that warm welcome on behalf of my delegation and myself. We are very pleased to be, once again, in China to have this opportunity to exchange views. We are committed to building a cooperative partnership with China; it is a key aspect of our rebalancing in the Asia Pacific. And we have had a lot of in depth consultations and high-level meetings over the last three and a half years. Just this past year, we had the fourth session of our Strategic and Economic Dialogue and a 12th meeting between our two presidents. And we continue to stress the importance of the practical cooperation that underlies our comprehensive relationship.
So again, tonight we’ll have a chance to explore issues in our bilateral relationship as well as regional and international matters that are of importance. So thank you again for the warm welcome to this new foreign ministry building.