05 July 2000 State Department Question and Answer on U.S. Officials' Visit to Asia Following is the State Department's response to a question taken at the July 5 daily briefing on John Holum visit to Asia: U.S. Department of State Office of the Spokesman Briefer: Richard Boucher, Spokesman July 5, 2000 Taken Question From 07-05 Daily Briefing Question: Do you have anything that you can tell us about John Holum and Bob Einhorn's visit to Asia? Mr. Boucher: Okay. Did you say "anything" or "anything else"? Q: Anything. Anything that wasn't already said last week. Mr. Boucher: I don't know quite where we stand on what we said before but let me tell you a little bit about what they are going for and what they will do. Our senior advisor to the President and Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Holum, is traveling to China July 7th and 8th for two days of talks with the Chinese Government on a variety of topics. The talks are aimed at improving our overall relationship with China and deepening our bilateral arms control, non-proliferation and security dialogue with Beijing. These topics remain at the top of our bilateral diplomatic agenda with Beijing and this important dialogue will allow our senior experts to engage in detailed discussions to explore each side's respective concern. You will remember that non-proliferation topics were on the Secretary's agenda as well when she was in Beijing two weeks ago. Mr. Holum will be accompanied by Assistant Secretaries Bohlen for Arms Control, Einhorn for Non-Proliferation and Newsom for Political and Military Affairs, by White House Senior Director for Non-Proliferation Gary Samore, by the East Asia Bureau's Deputy Assistant Secretary Darryl Johnson, by Pentagon representatives and other staff. They will visit Beijing, Singapore and Tokyo. In Beijing, in addition to the general plenary meetings hosted by Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya, Holum is scheduled to meet acting Foreign Minster Yang Jeichi, Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Xiong Guangkai, and Chinese Communist Party Foreign Affairs Expert LiuHuaqiu. In Singapore, he's accepted a long-standing invitation to meet with senior leaders to discuss bilateral relations and regional security topics. And the purpose of the Tokyo stop will be to debrief the Japanese foreign affairs officials on the talks in Beijing and to continue with our ongoing consultations with Japan on non-proliferation and arms control issues. (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov) Return to the Washington File