On April 3, Secretary of State John Kerry met with the new Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai and received a copy of his credentials at the Department of State.

Secretary Kerry extended warm welcome to Ambassador Cui. He said President Barack Obama and the US government attach great importance to China-US relations and stand ready to enhance dialogue and cooperation with China in the areas of economy, trade, people-to-people ties, climate change and international and regional hotspot issues, and further advance China-US partnership in the next four years. He also said he was looking forward to visiting China in April and co-chairing the next China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogues and China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchanges at an early date.

Ambassador Cui said that China-US relationship is now at a new historical start and faced with important opportunities for further development. The Chinese side is committed to working with the US side to follow up on the consensus reached between the two presidents, push forward the China-US cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit and explore a new type of relations between two major countries of China and the United States. He would make unremitting efforts to promote a sound and steadily-growing bilateral relationship during his term.

On the same day, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with Ambassador Cui and they exchanged views on China-US relations as well as international and regional issues.

Ambassador Cui Tiankai arrived at Washington D.C. on April 2.