China and the United States will hold the first strategic and economic dialogue from July 27 to 28 in Washington, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Thursday.

Qin told a regular news briefing that the dialogue will be jointly presided over by special representatives of Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Chinese delegation will be headed by Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, while the U.S. side will be headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner.

Qin said that during the meeting, the two sides will have extensive discussions on issues of strategic, overall and long-term significance in order to "deepen understanding, enhance mutual trust and promote cooperation."

The mechanism of the strategic and economic dialogue was jointly launched by President Hu and President Obama during their meeting in London in April.

Establishment of the mechanism was an elevation of the importance of China-U.S. cooperation under the new historical circumstances, Qin said at a previous news briefing.

Under the Bush administration, China and the United States maintained a dual-track mechanism of the strategic economic dialogue and the strategic dialogue. But the previous strategic dialogue was not headed by special representatives of the two presidents.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2009)