Donilon's meetings in China 'constructive'

WASHINGTON, July 25 (UPI) -- U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon had "constructive" meetings with senior Chinese officials in the past three days, the White House said Wednesday.

Donilon "held constructive, detailed and wide-ranging discussions with senior Chinese officials during his visit to Beijing July 23-25," the White House said in a statement. Donilon met with President Hu Jintao, Vice President Xi Jinping, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, State Councilor Dai Bingguo and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, and also had a "productive" discussion with Vice Chairman of the Military Commission Gen. Xu Caihou, the White House said.

The officials shared "extensive exchanges on the goals of the bilateral relationship and the mechanisms to achieve them," the statement said.

"In discussing regional and global issues, Mr. Donilon underscored the shared responsibility of both countries to address such challenges as North Korea, Iran, Syria, regional security in Asia, as well as the rebalancing of the global economy. Mr. Donilon underscored the importance of continuing to build a substantive and sustained military-to-military relationship, and underscored the continuing importance of the human rights dialogue."

Earlier, Hu said China is ready to work to advance bilateral relations with the United States. Donilon's trip to China was the first in eight years by a U.S. national security adviser.