FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
China’s Foreign Minister Urges U.S. To Meet Soon with D.P.R.K. Representatives
March 8, 2018 (EIRNS)—Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the U.S. to use the momentum created in the aftermath of the PyeongChang Olympics to meet with representatives from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Foreign Minister Wang was speaking at the annual Foreign Affairs press conference at the National People’s Congress. “The Korean Peninsula issue has finally taken an important step in the right direction,” Wang said. “These initial steps must be followed up by corresponding and concerted efforts by the parties. We call on the parties, particularly the United States and the D.P.R.K., to engage in dialogue sooner rather than later.”
Wang was also aware that the process would not proceed quickly.
“It takes more than one day to unfreeze three feet of ice. Despite light at the end of the tunnel, the journey won’t be smooth. History has reminded us time and again that whenever tensions subsided on the peninsula, the situation would be clouded by various interferences.”
But, he urged, “now is the crucial moment to test the sincerity of the parties to solve the nuclear issue.”
In reply to a question on U.S.-China relations, Wang said that the two countries “had broad interests and a common responsibility,” and that cooperation was the main thrust of the U.S.-China relationship.
“If there is any competition between us, it has to be healthy and positive.... But competition aside, we don’t have to be rivals. The two countries should strive to become partners in cooperation.”
China’s path toward rejuvenation was “unstoppable,” Wang said, “but those who feel that China wants to replace the United States are wrong. China is on its long march toward modernization. It has no intention of replacing. China and the United States must respect each other, combine our strengths, and pursue win-win cooperation on the basis of the three communiqués and our common understanding of these.”
He also warned that if the U.S. were to target China with trade tariffs, China would react appropriately.
Regarding the talk of a U.S. “Indo-Pacific strategy,” Wang passed it off as “a headline grabber” for a moment that would soon subside. “Encouraging a new Cold War is out of sync with the times and will find no market,” he said. The Foreign Minister was most upbeat over China-Russia relations, saying: “I have great confidence in this relationship, due to the close relationship between the two Presidents and our common position on many issues. Our relationship is unshakable as a mountain. And as it moves forward, the sky’s the limit.”
