WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States and China have enhanced cooperation on nuclear security matters, US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Thomas Countryman said on Monday.
"We cooperate and we are becoming ever closer in our cooperation in preventing the spread of the technology that enables a regime like North Korea to threaten its neighbors," Countryman stated ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, DC.
The White House announced earlier in March that US President Barack Obama will hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 31 on the margins of the nuclear summit.
The US official stressed that it is ‘vital’ that Beijing and Washington cooperate with each other on nuclear non-proliferation matters.
Countryman added that the United States and China have cooperated successfully on the nuclear agreement with Iran and on the UN Security Council resolution to respond to North Korea’s violations.
The US-China relationship has been complicated in recent years by disagreements over Beijing’s control regarding Washington has underscored China’s important role in pressuring North Korea, especially given Pyongyang’s latest nuclear pursuits and regional provocations. But Beijing maintains that the United States deploying anti-ballistic Terminal High Altitude Air Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea is a threat to Chinese security.
South Korea and the United States started discussing the deployment of THAAD systems earlier in March, in response to a successful North Korean hydrogen bomb test and launch of a satellite into orbit on board a long-range rocket.
