WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama spoke on Wednesday with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao and shared his ‘concerns’ over security issues including North Korea’s nuclear programme and deteriorating conditions in Pakistan, the White House said.
The phone call is the first publicised direct contact between the leaders of the world’s largest economy and the world’s most populous nation since the pair met in London on April 1, ahead of an economic summit, and the first since a renewed flare-up in China-US naval tensions.
The White House said the leaders ‘discussed regional security issues’ but it avoided specifying whether Obama and Hu waded into Friday’s encounter in waters off the Chinese mainland between Chinese fishing boats and a US Navy observation vessel – the latest in a series of high-seas standoffs this year which have put the two militaries on edge.
‘President Obama described to President Hu his concerns over recent actions by North Korea and threats to Pakistan by militants and terrorists,’ the White House said in a statement on the conversation.-AFP
