WASHINGTON: Washington and Beijing both want to stabilise US-China ties and deal constructively with problems in their relationship, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in an interview airing on Monday (Jul 10).
Yellen’s comments on National Public Radio’s Marketplace programme come after a four-day visit to Beijing during which she met with China’s new economic leadership team.
“There are challenges, but I believe there is a desire on both sides to stabilise the relationship and to constructively address problems that each of us see,” Yellen said of the world’s two biggest economies.
The aim is to do so “frankly, with candor, with respect and to build a productive relationship going forward,” she added.
Calling her trip successful, Yellen added that the United States and China have “grown apart” with misunderstandings developing between them.
To put a floor under relations and improve them eventually, “it’s necessary to meet to discuss our differences openly with respect, candidly, and to develop channels of regular communication,” she said.
“That certainly was a major goal of my trip. I think it was successful in that sense,” she told Marketplace.
