[Title] Joint Closing Remarks for the Strategic and Economic Dialogue (By Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton）

SECRETARY CLINTON: Good afternoon. I want to begin by thanking our Chinese colleagues, led by Vice Premier Wang and State Councilor Dai and the entire Chinese delegation for a productive and comprehensive dialogue between us. And I also, along with Secretary Geithner, want to thank everyone on the American side, not just those from the State Department or Treasury but indeed from across our government. The unprecedented level of involvement and the extraordinary work that has taken place since our last S&ED in Beijing was truly impressive.

The Strategic and Economic Dialogue continues to grow broader and deeper. It reflects the complexity and the importance of our bilateral relationship. And we have covered a lot of ground together, and I’m happy to report we have made a lot of progress. The list of agreements and understandings reached is quite long. We have seen concrete progress on a wide range of shared challenges, from the energy and environment to international trade and security. For example, there is now a new partnership that will bring U.S. and Chinese companies and universities together. Those which are developing innovative environmental technologies will now be working bi-nationally and with local governments and NGOs to promote sustainable development projects such as next generation batteries for electric cars, and new clean air and water initiatives. Already, Tulane University in New Orleans and East China Normal University are collaborating to improve the conservation of wetlands, and we have seen many other examples.

We are also laying the groundwork for potentially significant future collaboration on development, from working together to innovate and distribute clean cookstoves and fuels to strengthening public health systems in developing countries. And our people-to-people programs continue to expand, most notably our “100,000 Strong” Student Exchange Initiative, which has already raised the stated goal of dollars to go along with the very generous Chinese Government support for 20,000 American students because all of us are committed to increase more people-to-people interactions and opportunities. Now, I am well aware that these specific and very substantive partnerships may not produce major headlines, but I think they do reflect our shared commitment to translate the high-level sentiments and rhetoric of these diplomatic encounters to real world benefits for our citizens, our countries, and the wider world.

Just as important, although perhaps even harder to quantify, are the habits of cooperation and mutual respect that we’ve formed through these discussions. We believe that to keep our relationship on a positive path, as foreseen by Presidents Obama and Hu, the United States and China have to be honest about our differences and address them firmly and forthrightly. At the same time, we are working together to expand the areas where we cooperate and narrow the areas where we diverge. And we are building up a lot more understanding and trust. So we discussed everything, and whether it was something that was sensitive to us or sensitive to them, all the difficult issues, including human rights. And we both have made our concerns very clear to the other. We had candid discussions on some of our most persistent challenges, from addressing North Korea and Iran to rebalancing the global economy.

We agreed on the importance of cooperating in Afghanistan to advance common goals of political stability and economic renewal. We established a new U.S.-China consultation on the Asia-Pacific region, where we share a wide range of common interests and challenges. And for the first time in these dialogues, senior military and defense leaders from both sides sat down face to face in an effort to further our understanding, to develop trust, and avoid misunderstandings that can lead to dangerous miscalculations. This new strategic security dialogue is a very important step forward, and we think it will add immeasurably to our bilateral relationship.

As we have discussed these issues and as we have committed to keeping the relationship moving forward, we have some milestones ahead of us. For the first time, President Obama plans to participate in this year’s East Asia Summit. And Vice President Biden will travel to China this summer, continuing our discussions on the full range of shared regional and global challenges. And he hopes to return the hospitality by welcoming Vice President Xi Jinping to Washington at a later date. I look forward to seeing our Chinese partners at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Indonesia, and both the President and I and the Secretary are greatly anticipating the United States hosting APEC in Hawaii.

Now, those are just a few of the highlights. But day to day, at every level of our governments, we are working hard to build that positive, cooperative, comprehensive relationship that our two presidents have asked for. This is the long, hard, unglamorous work of diplomacy. At our plenary sessions that State Councilor Dai and I chaired yesterday, there was a dizzying array of issues that we are working on together, and I felt very satisfied because that was not the case two years ago. And I anticipate that we are going to see further progress, because we want to realize the full promise of our partnership, and we very fervently hope to leave a more peaceful and prosperous world for our children and our children’s children.

So let me again thank our Chinese friends for making this long journey and for working as we move forward on our journey together into the future.

Now, I am pleased to turn to my colleague and partner, Secretary Geithner