New secretary of state holds first talks with Chinese equal

Tillerson urges that Beijing use ‘all tools’ to rein in N. Korea

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (right) talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before a meeting Friday in Bonn, Germany
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (right) talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before a meeting Friday in Bonn, Germany

BONN, Germany -- U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with his Chinese counterpart for the first time since becoming America's top diplomat and urged China to do more to rein in North Korea's provocative actions.



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Tillerson, in the German city of Bonn for the Group of 20 conference, spoke with Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday. The State Department said they agreed to address differences constructively and that Tillerson highlighted the need for China "to use all available tools to moderate North Korea's destabilizing behavior."

Such requests of the Chinese from U.S. officials have become commonplace in recent years and have been met with limited success. China is North Korea's only ally and main trading partner and as such is seen as having influence over Pyongyang, which has embarked on a series of nuclear and missile tests.

According to German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Tillerson embraced global cooperation in his first meeting with foreign ministers of other G-20 nations.

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"Everybody knows, and the U.S. secretary made mention of it as well, that we need international cooperation to tackle the current crises in the world," Gabriel told reporters Friday after chairing the G-20 talks.

Tillerson backed Franco-German efforts to scale back violence in eastern Ukraine and discussed global development goals and cooperation with Africa at the two-day meeting in the former West German capital. Earlier, Gabriel said that Tillerson was "very much engaged" in efforts by western allies and Arab states to seek a political process to end the civil war in Syria.

Tillerson on Thursday joined Japanese and South Korean colleagues in condemning North Korea for its Feb. 12 ballistic missile test, saying the move will bring an "even stronger international response."

"These were very good talks to the extent that I'm confident that we can continue them on every level," Gabriel said. "I think Rex Tillerson will be a colleague with whom we can work well, at least on those things on which we can cooperate through strength and unity."

Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Lee of The Associated Press and by Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 02/18/2017

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