On July 23, 2008, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met in Singapore separately with Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on the sidelines of the foreign ministers' meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

On July 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (R) meets with Republic of Korea (ROK) Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan in Singapore.

In the meeting with his ROK counterpart, Yang said China and the ROK have established strategic partnership and the two sides should keep high-level exchanges, identify the key areas and development direction of strategic cooperation, deepen economic, trade and humanities exchanges and cooperation for more tangible outcome and enhance coordination and cooperation on major regional and international issues.

For his part, Yu Myung-hwan said ROK is willing to keep high-level exchanges with China, adding that Seoul will strengthen its cooperation and coordination with Beijing in all fields, especially in the area of East Asia cooperation and the Six-Party Talks.

On July 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (L) meets with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Singapore.

During the meeting with Rice, Yang said the relations between China and the United States have generally maintained a momentum of stable development in recent years. President Hu Jintao's recent successful meeting with his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush in Hokkaido, Japan, has set the direction for the development of bilateral ties in the new phase. China is ready to work with the U.S. to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, strengthen dialogue and cooperation in the bilateral and international issues and properly handle some sensitive problems so as to ensure the Sino-U.S. ties to develop on the healthy, stable track.

Meanwhile, Rice said U.S.-China relations are developing smoothly, adding that the two countries should expand their comprehensive cooperation and dialogue in broad areas, which she said is very significant. Rice expressed hope that Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and Iran's nuclear problem will be resolved properly through their joint communication and cooperation.

During the meeting with Smith, Yang said China highly values its friendly cooperative ties with Australia. China is willing to strengthen exchanges and intensify bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, energy, science and technology, Yang said. He urged both sides to actively push forward bilateral FTA talks, strengthen coordination in East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum and other mechanisms and jointly contribute to promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

Smith said China is an important partner of Australia. Australia would like to actively expand mutually beneficial cooperation on the basis of mutual trust and respect so as to advance bilateral ties to a higher level. Australia attaches importance to the process of East Asia cooperation and is ready to cooperate with China to meet the problems and challenges in the region, Smith added.