The American Delegation Left Beijing Empty-Handed

The American delegation, headed by US Deputy Undersecretary of Defence Peter Verga, which took part in the two-day negotiations on the incident which occurred with the planes of the Air Forces of the two countries, left Beijing on Friday. The head of the US delegation, whose other members were representatives of the Department of State and the Pentagon, described the round of the talks in Beijing as very productive, though no appreciable results were achieved at them. The sides only exchanged their positions concerning the collision of the Chinese fighter and the American spy-plane and agreed to continue the negotiations. The American side demands the return of its reconnaissance plane which made an emergency landing on the Hainan Island, while Beijing insists on a full termination of American reconnaissance flights near the territory of China and insists that the USA should take upon itself the whole responsibility for the incident. The Chinese Foreign Ministry also positively assessed the Beijing round of negotiations and called them "honest and making it possible to understand the positions of the sides." However, the Chinese sources do not report so far about the time and the place of the next round.

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