China, U.S. to improve ties

10 January 2011 | 11:08 | Source: Ria novosti

BEIJING -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie resumed defense dialogue to improve relations between the countries. "At present military to military relations between our two countries are faced with new opportunities for development together with some difficulties and challenges," Liang was quoted by the Times of India, RIA Novosti reports. "We need to work together to expand our shared interests to reduce our differences for us to ensure that military relations between our two nations would progress along a sound and steady track." This requires joint efforts of the two sides to resolve disagreements while ensuring the healthy and stable development of military ties between China and the United States, Xinhua official Chinese news agency cited Liang saying. "There are many areas where we have mutual interests and can work together," Gates said. He added that disagreements are best dealt with through dialogue and transparency. Gates is currently on visit to China from January 8. The visit was earlier postponed due to Pentagon decision to sell a nearly 6.4-billion-U.S.-dollar arms package to Taiwan in Jan. 2010, Xinhua said. Chinese President Hu Jintao will make an official visit to the United States on January 18-21 at the invitation of U.S. President Barack Obama, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the visit will promote further growth of Sino-U.S. relations in the new era. The visit is timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the restoration of China-U.S. ties, the minister said.