US urged to respect China's core interests

Beijing, Mar 7(ANI): - Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has urged the United States to take China's position seriously and respect its core interests and major concerns through credible steps.

"The United States should properly handle relevant sensitive issues and work with the Chinese side to return the China-US relationship to the track of stable development," The China Daily quoted Jiechi, as saying.

Jiechi said the China-US relationship had a good start after U.S. President Barack Obama took office last year.

However, he added that the US arms sales to Taiwan and US leaders' meeting with the Dalai Lama "caused a serious disturbance to the China-US ties and posed difficulty to the cooperation between the two countries,"

"Such a situation is not in the interest of either side, and the responsibility for the difficulty in Sino-US relations does not lie with China," he added.

Jiechi further said China's position had been announced a few days ago, when US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and National Security Council Senior Director for Asian Affairs Jeffrey Bader visited China.

"The Chinese side further stated in full its principled position on China-US relations and on major issues, including Taiwan and Tibet related issues," Yang said.

"We pointed out that the relevant moves taken by the United States side had seriously violated the principles set out in the three China-US joint communiques and the China-US joint statement."

"The moves undermined China's core interests and the overall interests of China-US relations, and China is firmly opposed to these moves," he added. (ANI)