BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday held a telephone conversation with his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, and discussed the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Syria.
Xi said that China sticks to the target of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and that China is committed to peace and stability of the peninsula.
China holds that the issue should be solved through peaceful means, said Xi, adding that his country is ready to maintain communication and coordination with the United States on the issue.
On Syria, Xi said that any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and that the path of political settlement should be followed.
He expressed the hope that the UN Security Council would speak in one voice as it is important for the Security Council to remain united over the issue.
Xi also asked teams of China and the United States to work together closely to make sure that Trump's visit to China later this year could achieve fruitful results.
He also urged the two sides to promote economic cooperation, expand exchanges in military, law enforcement, cyber and people-to-people areas, enhance communication and coordination in major global and regional issues,through the newly established four-pronged dialogue mechanism.
He expressed the hope that the dialogue mechanism will yield as many early-stage results as possible so as to inject impetus to bilateral relations.
Trump, in an early morning note on Twitter, said the call with Xi, just days after they met in the United States, was a "very good" discussion of the "menace of North Korea". The call came as an influential state-run Chinese newspaper warned that the Korean peninsula was the closest it has been to a "military clash" since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006.
The communication between the leaders underscored the sense of urgency as tension escalates amid concern that reclusive North Korea could soon conduct a sixth nuclear test, or more missile launches, and Trump's threat of unilateral action to solve the problem.
Trump ordered the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to head to the Korean peninsula in an attempt to deter North Korea's nuclear and long-range missile ambitions, which it is developing in defiance of U.N. resolutions and sanctions.  (Xinhua/Reuters)