On April 13, 2005, the first session of the "China-US Global Issues Forum" was held in Washington. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang and the US under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs Pamla Dobriansky co-chaired the forum which was attended by US officials from the departments of state, energy and health and Chinese officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, public security, health and environmental protection.

The forum aims at strengthening China-US cooperation on global issues. The first session focused on four aspects of sustainable development and energy resources, humanitarian assistance and development, law enforcement cooperation and public health. In terms of sustainable development and clean energy resources, both sides exchanged opinions on biodiversity, climate change, international cooperation on clean energy and other related issues, expressing the willingness to enhance coordination and cooperation to realize the objectives of the World Summit on Sustainable Development within related organizations including the Commission on Sustainable Development. They also agreed to cooperate on the initiatives related with clean energy resources, energy efficiency improvement and new energy technologies. In the field of humanitarian assistance, the participants discussed how to improve the responsiveness of the international community to humanitarian crisis, development fund raising and the Millennium Development Goal. As to the cooperation in law enforcement, the officials mainly talked about fighting against cross-border crimes including Internet crime, corruption, IPR crime and human abduction and related bilateral and multilateral cooperation initiatives. On public health, both sides discussed the prevention and treatment of SARS, bird-flu and how to prevent the outbreak of other diseases, agreeing to strengthen international cooperation on monitoring infectious diseases.

The officials of the two countries believe that the forum adds a new cooperative initiative to China-US relations. It will help promote and deepen bilateral relations and solve global issues as well. They agree to hold the forum annually, with the second session to be held in China in the first half of 2006.