From December 16 to 17, 2009, the 7^th China-US Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation was held in Beijing. Vice Foreign Minister Li Jinzhang attended the opening ceremony and delivered a keynote speech. Government officials, experts and scholars of the two countries led respectively by Cheng Jingye, Director-General of the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and Vann Van Diepen, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation of the US, attended the conference during which the two sides exchanged in-depth views on such issues as nuclear non-proliferation, peaceful uses of nuclear energy, China-US arms control and nonproliferation cooperation and international arms control and disarmament and gained better understanding of each other’s position.

As a “track one-and-a-half” exchange mechanism between official and non-official levels of the two countries, the China-US Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation is co-hosted by China Arms Control and Disarmament Association and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies of the US.