Remarks by Christopher R. Hill
Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Morning Walk-Through, St. Regis Hotel
Beijing, China
May 31, 2007
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Well, as I told you yesterday, I didn’t expect to have any news today, and I don’t. I’m leaving for Washington this afternoon. I’m going to go over to the Embassy. As I’ve told you, we had a good exchange with the Chinese. It is very valuable to get together with the Chinese and talk about where we are going with the Six-Party process. As I told you yesterday, we do believe the North Koreans are still prepared to shut down this reactor and implement these measures that we agreed on. (Cell phone rings.) Do you want to get that?
QUESTION: Got it.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: And to agree on the first tranche measures. I think they ought to get moving on it now. We are obviously doing all we can to finish this problem of the banking, the bank issue. I think they should leave that to us and get on with their obligations.
So I’m going to go off to the Embassy and then probably pack up and take off.
QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador…
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Yes?
QUESTION: Are there a number of suggestions, or are they converging into one plan?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I’m sorry?
QUESTION: The suggestions that you mentioned last night. Are there still a number of suggestions or are they converging into one plan?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I think the main thing was to exchange notes and information on things. China is in the chair of the Six-Party process. They obviously want to get this thing done. They certainly want to have a number of questions from us. We had a number of questions from them. I think it was very useful to have this exchange. We’ll see if we can get this done. But I’ve stopped predicting when precisely it is going to be done, except I think everyone understands the urgency. On the U.S. side, it involves pretty complex governmental issues. As you know, we’ve also had discussions with the private sector about it.
Again, I don’t have anything new for you today. We’ll just try to get it done as soon as possible. And when it is done, you’ll, I’m sure, be one of the first to know. And then we can talk about how it was done and why it took so long.
QUESTION: In your discussions, it wasn’t only on North Korea, but also the Darfur issue came up. Did the Chinese express any concern about the sanctions that the Bush Administration mentioned and the new companies that are going to be listed?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Again, we didn’t get into too much detail on that. I took the occasion to explain what we are doing and why we are doing it. Why we believe there is real urgency, the fact that we have some real concerns about how the government in Khartoum has been behaving. We have concerns about their commitments to moving quickly to help the international community help the situation. It was an opportunity to exchange views. We discussed that issue and a number of other international issues.
That was not in my conversation with Wu Dawei. That was in my conversation with He Yafei, who deals with U.S. issues and our bilateral agenda. We have a very active bilateral agenda in the wake of the strategic economic talks. Obviously, there is a lot to talk about with climate change. As you know, the President just announced a new initiative on climate change. I think the U.S.-China relationship is very full. There are lots of things going on, lots of interaction. We talked about military to military talks, for example. We talked about the upcoming Senior Dialogue or Strategic Dialogue that is held at the Deputy Secretary-level on our side. We just have a very active agenda with the Chinese.
Sorry. We really need to get going, I think. So I’ll see you all on the next trip -- I hope not to talk about BDA.
QUESTION: When do you think you’ll be back?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I don’t know. We are going to try to get through this BDA matter. I hope when I next see you we won’t be talking about it. I truly hope that.
QUESTION: I’m sorry. On Darfur, what was the Chinese reaction? Also, did they say whether or not they would veto a sanction resolution?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Again, we didn’t get into that level of detail. You’ll have to ask them about their intentions with respect to the Security Council actions. Okay?
QUESTION: You mentioned that you thought North Korea should start following through on their obligations. Are you now calling for them to get started on shutting down Yongbyon?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: You know, we’ve taken some actions. We really worked very hard to work through this. The North Koreans are fond of talking about a level of trust. I think we’ve established that we are really working to resolve this matter, and we will resolve it. And I think they ought to get going on their obligations, because there is no purpose in that reactor operating today. I think they know that, and I think they know that we are all committed to getting through this. Rather than stand around waiting for us to do things, perhaps they should get going on their own obligations. That is all I am saying.
QUESTION: On the military-to-military talks, did the U.S. ask for observer status at the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) war games that are going to be held?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: Again, we didn’t discuss that issue. We discussed the fact that we’ve had a very active visits program, and we want to continue to have an active visits program. We are looking ahead to some additional visits. So it was more on the visit issue.
In the wake of the Pentagon release of the China military power report, I think it is a time when militaries need to continue to work together and to essentially show transparency. So it was in the nature of keeping up what we’ve started in recent years.
Okay, got to go. See you later.
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