By ANITA CHANG – Associated Press Writer
BEIJING — Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend a summit on nuclear security in the United States this month, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday, signaling an end of strained relations between the countries.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Hu would stop in Washington for the April 12-13 summit on his way to Brazil, Venezuela and Chile.
It had not been clear if Hu would attend the U.S.-hosted event because of Chinese unhappiness over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and a meeting between President Barack Obama and exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.
The summit is expected to discuss both disarmament and ways to reduce the threat of rogue nations or terrorists gaining access to nuclear weapons.
Other world leaders were expected to attend, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was expected to interrupt election campaigning to attend. Brown is widely expected to call the elections for May 6 – meaning the visit would take place as Brown’s governing Labour Party and its rivals are launching their campaigns.
China reacted furiously to the U.S. decision earlier this year to sell $6.4 billion in military hardware to Taiwan, and suspended military exchanges.
The sale of helicopters, missiles and other weapons came after Obama had a White House meeting with Dalai Lama, who Beijing accuses of trying to separate Tibet from China.
The countries have also tangled this year over trade disputes, cyberspying accusations from Google Inc. and a high-profile disagreement over the value of the Chinese currency, which Washington says is being kept undervalued to unfairly support Chinese exports.
