PEACE & SECURITY | Creating a more stable world
20 June 2008
Rice to Visit China's Earthquake-Stricken Chengdu
Secretary traveling to Germany, Japan, South Korea and China June 23-30
Washington -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Chengdu in China's mountainous Sichuan province June 29 to express the condolences of the American people to the survivors of the devastating May 12 earthquake and also will talk with local officials and humanitarian aid organizations working on relief efforts there.
"This has been a very tragic situation for the people of China," says State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey. "I think the secretary just wants to be able to go look for herself and talk with some of the folks involved in the relief effort ... as a show of sympathy and support for those people that have been affected by this."
Rice will become the most senior U.S. official to visit China since the earthquake. The epicenter of the magnitude 8.0 to 8.3 earthquake struck in Wenchuan County at approximately 2:28 p.m., local time (6:28 GMT), according to the China Seismological Bureau. Official estimates as of June 18 have placed the death toll at approximately 69,174, the number of injured at 374,142, and missing at 17,415.
The United States has contributed an estimated $100 million from public- and private-sector contributions for humanitarian assistance in China since the earthquake.
CHENGDU VISIT PART OF LARGER TRIP
Rice's visit to Chengdu is part of a larger trip to Germany, Japan, South Korea and China June 23-30, Casey said at a June 19 news briefing.
In Berlin June 24 Rice will attend the International Conference in Support of Palestinian Civil Security and Rule of Law that is designed to help bolster Palestinian courts and law enforcement.
"This is part of our ongoing efforts to help ensure that the Palestinians are able to develop their institutions and their systems so that when ... we get to an agreement for the establishment of a Palestinian state, that the Palestinian people are in a good position to be able to manage that state and govern it," Casey said.
She will meet with other foreign ministers from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations in Kyoto, Japan, June 26-28. Those talks will include economic issues, Six-Party Talks coordination, alliance issues and regional cooperation.
"That will cover a range of issues that the Japanese have put at the forefront of the G8 agenda. She will also, while there, be participating with her Australian and Japanese counterparts in another round of the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue," Casey said.
The G8 Summit will be held in Hokkaido, Japan, July 7-9.
After meeting in Kyoto, Rice travels to Seoul, South Korea, on June 28 for consultations that will likely touch on the Six-Party Talks aimed at ending the threat of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, Casey said.
She then ends her trip by first stopping in Chengdu, then traveling on to Beijing for consultations. China is part of the Six-Party Talks along with North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.
