Tuesday, June 02, 2009 BEIJING: China on Tuesday took up US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's call to work together in battling the financial crisis as the Asian giant tries to position itself as a major force on the global stage.Beijing was eager to deepen efforts with Washington on dragging the world out of the economic slump, Vice Premier Wang Qishan told Geithner in a Monday meeting, the foreign ministry said. But state media expressed opposition to the government's policy of buying massive US debt that they said could see the value of China's assets battered as the financial crisis continues.Wang, who is in charge of China's economy, was quoted by the ministry as telling Geithner: "We will send a message that China and the United States are cooperating substantively to get over the difficult times. "This will help boost confidence and promote global financial stability and world economic recovery."The two sides further laid the groundwork for the first "strategic and economic dialogue" agreed to by Chinese President Hu Jintao and US President Barack Obama and to be held in Washington later this year. "The major task of the dialogue is to address the global economic slowdown," Wang said.Geithner is scheduled to meet Hu and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao later Tuesday, the last day of his two-day visit.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
Comments