Obama China-bound later this year

by Christi Parsons and Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, traveling across Europe this week from London to Turkey, is picking up more foreign engagements down the road.

Obama already announced today in London that he will accept Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's invitation to travel to Moscow this summer -- with their July meeting a step along the way toward reviving nuclear arms reduction negotiations between the United States and Russia, as an old arms treaty expires in December.

And today in London, two senior administration officials said that Obama also has accepted Chinese President Hu Jintao's invitation to travel to China in the latter half of this year -- in what may become the first of an annual series of U.S.-Chinese sessions.

After meeting with Hu in their first face-to-face conversation today Obama said: "Obviously, China is a great power, it has a long and extraordinary history.

"The relationship between the U.S. and China has become extremely constructive,'' the president said. "Our economic relationships are very strong, and I said publicly and I continue to believe that the relationship between China and the United States is not only important for the citizens of both our countries but will help to set stage for how the world deals with a whole host of challenges in the years to come .

"So I am looking forward to productive and open conversation about not only the state of the world economy during this time of crisis, but also how we can work cooperatively together to improve peace and security for both nations and the world at large,'' he said. "And I think that as strong as our relationship already is, I am confident that we can make it stronger for many years to come."