China’s President Hu Jintao will attend a nuclear summit in Washington this month in a boost to the Obama administration’s efforts to combat the spread of bomb- making materials.
“China highly values the nuclear security issue” and opposes nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in Beijing today, announcing the visit.
Obama has made the reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear arms a central part of his foreign policy, and more than 40 nations have been invited to attend the April 12-13 summit in the U.S. capital. Hu’s participation is also seen as a sign of warming ties with Washington.
“It represents in a very major way a positive turn in US- China relations during an extended period of frostiness,” said Carlyle A. Thayer, professor of politics at the Australian Defense Force Academy, University of New South Wales, said in a telephone interview.
Ties between the two have become frayed in recent months over issues including the sale of U.S. arms to Taiwan, Washington’s repeated calls on Beijing to allow the yuan to appreciate, Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in February and the decision by Google Inc. last month to pull out of China over censorship and privacy concerns.
Hu’s decision to attend the summit comes two days after Qin told reporters that China appreciates “positive statements on improving China-U.S. relations,” made by Obama and Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg.
Constructive talks between Obama and Hu may help cool the ardor of trade protectionist lawmakers pushing for punitive tariffs on China for keeping the yuan artificially cheap to boost exports.
Nuclear Arsenals
Obama said March 26 that he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to cut their nuclear arsenals by almost a third in an accord that replaces the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991. The two leaders are set to sign the treaty in Prague on April 8.
After the summit Hu will travel to Brazil for a meeting of BRIC nations. He’ll also visit Venezuela and Chile, Qin said