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Hu to attend Obama nuclear summit
Published on: 2010-04-02
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China on Thursday announced that Hu Jintao, the country’s president, would attend a summit on nuclear security in Washington later this month, a goodwill gesture to the US after weeks of tension over a range of issues.


In a further sign that the two countries are taking steps to patch up strained bilateral relations, Mr Hu told Barack Obama, US president, in a one-hour phone call on Thursday that Sino-US relations had shown “good momentum for development” since the Mr Obama took office and that he wanted “healthy ties”. Mr Hu, however, stressed to Mr Obama that the “appropriate” handling of issues related to Taiwan and Tibet were key to a stable development of these ties, according to China’s foreign ministry on Friday.


Mr Obama welcomed Mr Hu’s decision and reiterated US adherence to a “One China” policy, the foreign ministry added.


In recent months the relationship between the two countries has been shaken by a US decision to sell $6.4bn of arms to Taiwan and Mr Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, as well as sometimes heated exchanges over trade, pressure to revalue the Chinese currency and Google’s move to defy China’s censorship regime.


Since Beijing had not committed itself to attending the April 12 summit until now, there had been worries it could skip the meeting in a sign of displeasure.


Qin Gang, foreign ministry spokesman, told reporters on Thursday that Mr Hu would participate in the summit on his way to visit Brazil, Venezuela and Chile. The nuclear summit would mainly discuss nuclear terrorism and potential countermeasures, said Mr Qin.


The White House welcomed China’s decision. Bill Burton, White House spokesman, told reporters: “China understands that it’s in their best interest that there isn’t a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.”


Apart from being a foreign policy success for Mr Obama, the decision also makes it less likely that the US will step up pressure on China to liberalise its exchange rate by labelling it a currency manipulator. Some prominent figures in Congress are pushing the White House to make an official designation in its twice-yearly currency report, due by April 15. But the timing of the nuclear summit, on April 12-13, makes such a diplomatically risky move less likely.


On Thursday, Charles Schumer, the third most senior Democrat in the Senate and author of a bill that would restrict Chinese imports unless it changes currency policy, said that the US should push China on the exchange rate regardless.


The announcement that Mr Hu would participate in the summit follows some conciliatory moves from both Washington and Beijing. Mr Obama stressed the importance of US-China relations when meeting Beijing’s new ambassador to Washington this week, and China acknowledged his remarks as an important gesture of goodwill in front-page stories in state newspapers.


China’s gesture came amid broader signs of more co-operation in international security affairs. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said on Wednesday that Beijing had agreed in a conference call to start talks about sanctions against Iran. This marked a change of heart as Beijing had long reiterated its opposition in principle against sanctions.


Mr Qin said that China would continue to work towards a peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue.


“We will play a responsible and constructive role in aim to resolve this issue,” he said. “We believe every result should serve the two goals of safeguarding the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, while maintaining the stability and security of the region.”


Saeed Jalili, Iran’s senior nuclear negotiator, arrived in Beijing for talks on Thursday.

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