Photo:VCG

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met visiting US climate envoy John Kerry on Tuesday at Beijing's Great Hall of the People, calling him an old friend and expressing hope that the US would adopt a rational and pragmatic policy toward China. 

Kerry was greeted by Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, at Beijing's Great Hall of the People on the third day of his visit to China that ends on Wednesday.

The two officials shook hands and exchanged opening remarks before beginning their meeting.

During the meeting, Wang called the visiting US senior official as “an old friend,” saying that when Kerry served as the US Secretary of State, the two sides had shared a long-term consensus and established a close working relationship. Wang added that climate change cooperation was advanced by the progress of overall China-US relations. 

Wang said it was important to earn the recognition and support from the people in the two countries, which requires healthy, stable and sustainable bilateral relations. The Chinese senior diplomat said the US is hoped to carry out a rational and pragmatic attitude, believing that Kerry could play an important positive role. 

“Today, we have a good opportunity and I’m willing to exchange opinion on any issues. In recent years, we saw less communication, leading more problems to occur, sometimes, small problems become big ones,” Wang told Kerry. 

As long as the two countries maintain a spirit of mutual respect and equal dialogue and communication, it’s believed that we could find proper solutions for any problem, the Chinese official said. 

China's special envoy for climate change Xie Zhenhua and Kerry held talks that reportedly lasted for about four hours on Monday, which has been viewed as the latest effort to revive climate cooperation between the two countries and a positive signal for bilateral relations, which are widely seen as being at a historical low point.


Global Times