Pak part of US discussion with China: Obama admin

With China being Pakistan's 'all-weather friend', Islamabad is part of America's ongoing dialogue with the Chinese leaders, the Obama Administration has said.

"We do talk to China about Pakistan. Obviously, they're neighbours. They've got a relationship and a history. And so it is part of our ongoing dialogue with China," State Department spokesman P J Crowley told reporters at his daily news conference.

Pakistan and other regional issues did figure in talks between US President Barack Obama, and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, at the White House on Wednesday, but no details were available.

"There was a detailed regional discussion. And I can't say specifically what every topic that was part of the discussion between President Obama and President Hu Jintao together. But a lot of work was done with the respective teams," Crowley said in response to a question.

"The joint statement is a reflection not only of what the presidents themselves discussed personally, but also what the presidents endorsed in terms of the policy understandings that we have reached with China in a wide range of issues," he said.

So one of the benefits of this kind of high-level meeting is that there is a lot of work that's done both in the preparation for the summit and then the summit and the endorsement by the leaders of the understandings that are achieved, then help inform our policies going forward, Crowley said.

"Certainly in this process there was a great deal of discussion on a wide range of regional issues, and it has informed what we'll be doing right now," he said.

"For example, in the aftermath of the summit, you've got Deputy Secretary Steinberg going back out to the region to follow up on our discussion with our other partners in the Six-Party process.
 
So this gives you an example of the broad sweep of the preparation for this summit," he said.
 
But I'm sure that the President Obama and President Hu Jintao did take note of a broad range of regional developments across the Asia-Pacific region, Crowley said when asked if South Asia came up for discussion between Obama and Hu early this week.