Obama offers condolences to Xi over Chinese nationals on missing flight
US President Barack Obama expressed his condolences over the missing Chinese aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight in a telephone conversation with President Xi Jinping yesterday.
US President Barack Obama expressed his condolences over the missing Chinese aboard a Malaysia Airlines flight in a telephone conversation with President Xi Jinping yesterday.
In the conversation, which came as the two leaders prepare to meet at a nuclear summit next month, Obama said the US was ready to work with China in the search efforts for flight MH370, which went missing with 239 aboard. Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese nationals.
Xi told Obama China had instructed relevant authorities to carry out search and rescue operations.
Obama also told Xi the US was "against all forms of terrorism and stood ready to co-operate with China in the fight against terrorism", a reference to the March 1 attack at a train station in Kunming , Yunnan province, in which 33 people died, including four attackers. In response, Xi said China was prepared to work with the US in combating terror.
The two presidents also agreed a peaceful solution was needed in Ukraine. "They affirmed their shared interest in reducing tensions and identifying a peaceful resolution to the dispute between Russia and Ukraine," a White House statement said.