23 September 2009
Obama and China’s Hu Hold Talks on U.S.-China Relations
Washington — President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao, meeting for the second time this year, discussed major issues such as nuclear weapons programs in North Korea and Iran, climate change, and global economic recovery, and more specific economic and trade issues between the United States and China during a 90-minute meeting in New York. The September 22 meeting was held on the sidelines of the 64th U.N. General Assembly.
“It was a conversation; it was not simply a presentation of talking points on the two sides,” a senior administration official said during a background briefing September 23. “It reflects the fact they’ve had many conversations and they’ve now become easy and comfortable with each other.”
Obama emphasized during his discussions with Hu that the Iranian nuclear issue is vital to U.S. national security interests, and he indicated that he was looking for the same cooperative approach that the United States has had with China on North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program in dealing with Iran, the senior official said. “We know that the Chinese do not wish to see Iran develop nuclear weapons,” he added. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the Chinese understood how important this issue was to the United States and to the president.”
The United States is working with the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, China, France and Russia — and Germany to convince the Iranian regime to abandon efforts to develop nuclear weapons and the missiles needed to launch them across the region and into Europe. A meeting with Iranian officials and the six nations is planned for October 1 in Geneva, says European Union foreign affairs chief Javier Solana.
On North Korea, Obama emphasized the necessity of the Six-Party Talks, which include China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States, the senior administration official said. These talks are aimed at convincing the North Korean regime to abandon development of nuclear weapons, the means to deliver them, and accept an international verification process.
Obama told Hu of the “necessity for North Korea to honor the commitments that they made in the six-party process, in particular in 2005,” the senior official said. “[Obama] noted that bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea could be useful if they contributed to restoration of that framework and a serious North Korean commitment to those goals.”
The Chinese have a long-standing view that bilateral talks between the United States and North Korea with the aim of defusing the current situation would be valuable and that they must be conducted in support of the six-party framework and the elimination of nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, the official said.
Hu will join Obama at the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies summit being held in Pittsburgh on September 24–25. In their New York meeting, the two leaders discussed the global economic recovery and the fact that as the recovery moves forward there must be more balance than in previous recoveries, the senior official said. Obama told Hu that the United States is moving away from an extreme consumption-led economy toward greater savings and toward management of fiscal issues, the official said.
The senior official said Obama also encouraged the Chinese to move toward an economy based on greater consumption.
A trade dispute with China over imported tires came up in the talks between Obama and Hu, the official said. The president approved imposing special duties on Chinese-made automotive tire imports for three years to correct market disruptions caused by a surge in imported tires. (See “United States Imposes Special Tariffs on Chinese-Made Tires.”)
The additional import duty on Chinese-made passenger vehicle and light truck tires, which have a regular 4 percent duty, will be set at an additional 35 percent of value in the first year, then decline to 30 percent in the second year and finally 25 percent of value in the third and final year of the special duty. The new duty is set to take effect on September 26.
“The president emphasized that we had differences on the issue, and said that the United States remains firmly committed to free trade and resisting protectionism,” the senior administration official said.
The official said Obama and Hu also agreed that the United States and China must cooperate on clean energy, energy efficiency, and work together for a positive outcome from international climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.
A transcript of remarks by Obama and Hu prior to their meeting is available on America.gov.
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