US, China tout close coordination

President Barack Obama on Monday touted close US cooperation with China on climate change as vital to world efforts to slow global warming, even as he acknowledged persistent differences with China’s President Xi Jinping over cybersecurity and maritime security.

Huddling with Mr Xi on the sidelines of the Paris climate conference, Mr Obama said nowhere had coordination with Beijing been more critical or more fruitful than on climate change.

He credited US and Chinese leadership with leading 180 nations to make their own pledges to curb emissions in the run-up to the Paris talks.

“As the two largest economies in the world and the two largest carbon emitters, we have both determined that it is our responsibility to take action,” Mr Obama said, with Mr Xi sitting next to him. “Our leadership on this issue has been absolutely vital,” he said.

Yet Obama also invoked hot-button issues that have long vexed US-China relati-ons as he and Mr Xi opened their meeting.

The United States has complained bitterly about cyber-attacks against the US emanating from China, and Mr Obama has spoken out regularly against China’s assertive moves in disputed waters in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

Yet Mr Obama said the US and China had developed a “candid way of discussing these issues,” adding that he hoped to build on that tradition during his meeting with Mr Xi.

The Chinese leader described climate change a huge challenge. Speaking through a translator, he called for the US and China to build a new model of cooperation, using diplomatic language long preferred by Beijing.

“The world economy is recovering slowly, terrorism is on the rise and climate change is a huge challenge. There is more instability and uncertainty in (the) international situation,” Mr Xi said through the translator.

Mr Obama’s meeting with Mr Xi at the opening of the two-week Paris conference was designed to underscore the need for all nations to come together on a strong agreement to combat climate change.

China emits about 30 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases and the US about 16 per cent.