President Barack Obama on Thursday opened talks with China's top diplomat hours after Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called for the two countries to put aside differences that cannot be quickly resolved. Obama abandoned normal protocol that calls for bilateral meetings between officials of equal rank, with both the White House and Beijing apparently hoping frank talks will ease tensions over a naval incident in the South China Sea and controversy over China's rule in Tibet. Yang arrived at the White House for the talks, which also included Vice President Joe Biden and national security advisor James Jones, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Earlier on Thursday, Yang called for “broader and deeper” U.S.-Chinese cooperation on dealing with the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, climate change, and trade and economic issues. “Confrontation hurts both sides,” Yang said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank. He said the two countries should “shelve differences” that cannot be immediately resolved and focus on cooperation.
