Premier Li Keqiang met with United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew on June 7 in Beijing after they attended the Eighth Round of China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues and the Seventh China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange.

“The relationship between China and US has moved forward through decades since the establishment of their diplomatic ties,” said Premier Li.

With exchanges and cooperation in different fields deepening, common interests between the two countries have far outweighed the differences. China is willing to keep high level communication and dialogue mechanism, to further promote the bilateral strategic mutual trust. Meanwhile, the two sides should also expand cooperation, promote cultural exchanges and manage difference to boost a healthy and stable development of the relationship. “It will not only benefit the people in two countries, but contribute to the world peace, stability and prosperity,” said Premier Li.

Premier Li said that China’s trade and economic ties with the US are increasingly close. Last year, both the bilateral trade volume and two-way investment stock hit record high, and China, for the first time, became the largest trading partner of the US. “We are willing to deepen the trade and economic cooperation with the US, and with a positive and pragmatic attitude, we hope we could reach a bilateral investment agreement in the principle of mutual benefit and win-win results”, said the Premier.

The Premier stressed that it is normal that some issues may arise, considering the cooperation of China and the US is large in volume and covers many fields. The key to solve these issues is to focus on the overall situation, properly handle economic and trade frictions.

China, as a responsible country in the world, is promoting its reform and expanding opening up, said the Premier, adding that China wish the US can fulfill its promise in the Article 15 of the protocols for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as scheduled.

Premier Li reiterated that there is no basis for the Renminbi to continue devaluation and China is not intent on stimulating export by waging “trade war” or “currency war”. China has the ability to maintain the basic stability of the RMB exchange rate at a reasonable and balanced level.

The Premier also said that China is willing to strengthen communication with the US, to promote this year’s G20 summit in Hangzhou to become a success.

With slowdown of world economy, shrinking international trade and decline in market demand, overcapacity has become a common challenge faced by many countries, said the Premier. China is determined to cut overcapacity by upgrading traditional industries and weeding out outdated ones, while keeping employment stable. China is ready to overcome this difficulty and achieve win-win results with other countries.

Kerry and Jacob said this round of dialogue is effective, which proved that the mechanism helps the US and China deepen communication and handle differences. As two of the biggest economies in the world, strengthened cooperation will have a strong effect on the world economy. The US side applauds China’s efforts in keeping reform and opening-up, and cutting overcapacity, and is willing to promote the negotiation of a bilateral investment treaty, and enhance cooperation within the G20 framework.

The two sides also exchanged views on climate change.

Vice-Premiers Liu Yandong, Wang Yang, and State Councilor Yang Jiechi attended the meeting.