Hu, Bush to meet at G-8 summit in St. Petersburg
(chinadaily.com.cn/agencies)
Updated: 2006-07-13 17:16
Chinese President Hu Jintao will hold a bilateral meeting with US President
George W. Bush during this month's G-8 summit in Russia, the Chinese Foreign
Ministry said Thursday.
The two sides were likely to discuss the North
Korean nuclear issue during the meeting, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
Christopher Hill, according to an AP report.
Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the two sides were making "active preparations for the
meeting" and that the leaders would discuss "China, US relations as well as
other major international and regional issues of common interest."
Hill
said Thursday in Beijing that he thought the G-8 Summit would give the two
leaders an opportunity for "a lot of direct discussion on what would be the next
steps" in handling the North Korean nuclear issue.
In recent days,
Washington and Beijing have been involved in a flurry of diplomatic exchanges in
a bid to persuade North Korea to return to negotiations on its nuclear program
following its test firing last week of seven long-range missiles.
China
isn't a member of the Group of Eight major economies, which includes the United
States, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Russia. But Hu will
be in St. Petersburg on July 16-17 for the meeting of developing countries.
Possible one-on-one meetings between Hu and Russian President Vladimir
Putin and other leaders also were under discussion, Cui Tiankai, an assistant
Chinese foreign minister, said Wednesday. But he said Hu has no plans to meet
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
Cui said Hu will hold a
trilateral meeting with leaders from Russia and India as well as a group meeting
with leaders from India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico and the Republic of Congo
at the summit on "safeguarding global peace and promoting international
cooperation."
|
