Mr. Foreign Minister, I congratulate our countries on this very important development. I'm very delighted to meet you here. Although this is the first time for me to have talks with Secretary Albright in Washington since I became China's new Foreign Minister. Actually, this is already our fifth meeting since I took up the post. And I also wish to thank Secretary Albright for your gracious invitation which enables me to have this opportunity of visiting Washington at this golden season of Autumn.
Autumn is a time of harvest.
The past year actually has witnessed very positive progress and also has grown very rich fruits in China-US relations. Autumn is also a season of sowing. Now China and the United States are working together to build a constructive strategic partnership between the two countries. Just now, I had a very productive and a successful meeting with President Clinton and later I am going to hold official talks with Secretary Albright. I believe our talks will also be fruitful.