MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev) - Can a U.S.-Chinese meeting be described as a summit if the Chinese leader, Hu Jintao, does not attend it? On the other hand, U.S. President Barack Obama addressed U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) on July 27, which should please sticklers for protocol.
Obama said that the dialogue "represents a commitment to shape our young century through sustained cooperation, and not confrontation."
"I look forward to carrying this effort forward through my first visit to China," he said.
As for Hu Jintao, he visited the United States last spring.
On the other hand, it was the first time that such a large Chinese delegation - 200 officials led by State Councilor Dai Bingguo, who is responsible for China's foreign policy strategy - visited Washington.
Since state-owned companies play a crucial role in China, many of the Chinese delegates are responsible for economic decisions, and the same can be said about the U.S. delegation. During a two-day conference, the partners discussed mostly business.
The conference, "designed to develop a new framework for U.S.-China relations," was vivid proof that the U.S. and China view the economy as the key issue. The economy is so important to them that all other aspects of bilateral relations can and should be allowed to travel separately - and hopefully get lost somewhere along the way.
Two key U.S. delegates - State Secretary Hillary Clinton and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, who is responsible for the United States' anti-crisis strategy - contributed an article to The Wall Street Journal ahead of the conference, which has been reprinted by China's Renmin Ribao.
They write in the article: "Today China's GDP tops four trillion dollars, thousands of emails and cellphone calls cross the Pacific Ocean daily, and by next year there will be 249 direct flights per week between the U.S. and China."
There is one more vital figure, which they neglected to mention although it lies at the heart of bilateral relations and is therefore known to each conference delegate. It is the $1.5 trillion of state bond the U.S. owes China.
China is the world's largest creditor of the American economy, and the $1.5 trillion is comparable to the U.S. budget deficit, which is expected to reach $1.84 trillion in 2010.
China does not really mean it when it says that the dollar should be laid to rest as a global reserve currency, but the United States still shudders every time Beijing officials say so, or when they question the reliability of China's investment in the U.S. economy, as they did last spring, and wonder if it would collapse soon.
In fact, the conference in Washington was held to discuss joint ways to overcome the crisis. The two countries have apparently agreed that they are in the same boat, and their relations should continue to develop in this spirit despite huge differences between their cultures and social and political systems, which Dai Bingguo pointed out in his speech.
Simply put, it looks as if the debtor - the United States - is doing its best to please its creditor - China, so as to be able to borrow more from it.
This new development makes one wonder what turn international relations may take now that the U.S.-China pair is playing a growing role in them.
Will it change Washington's foreign policy? Under previous presidents, the United States loved to teach democracy to other countries and used NGOs to change several regimes - or threatened to do so.
China is aware of these dangers, if only because of the turbulent events in Tibet and Xinjiang.
With Barack Obama in the White House, Washington has become softer, but will it change its foreign policy? If so, will the change concern all countries, or only China?
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The establishment of the S&ED was announced on April 1, 2009 by President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao. The upgraded mechanism will replace the former Senior Dialogue and Strategic Economic Dialogue started under the George W. Bush administration.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
