A senior US diplomat was due in China Tuesday for talks aimed at getting Sino-US relations back on track, with tensions high over US arms sales to Taiwan and a White House visit by the Dalai Lama. US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg will also focus on efforts to bring North Korea back to stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations, and try to persuade Beijing to back new sanctions against Iran over its atomic programme.
Steinberg, who will be accompanied by Jeffrey Bader, Obama's top Asia adviser on the National Security Council, will head to Tokyo on Thursday for talks with Japanese officials before heading home.
The spokesman said the visit by Steinberg and Bader offered an opportunity to "refocus on the future" of relations between the US and China, the world's largest and third-largest economies. (Source: France24.com, Mar 2, 1010).