U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner arrived in Beijing Sunday morning for the upcoming second round of the China-U.S. Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED).

Ahead of Geithner's presence in China, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Shanghai Friday night. Besides a visit to Shanghai, Clinton will also attend the China-U.S. talks in Beijing scheduled for Monday and Tuesday as U.S. President Barack Obama's special representative.

"The relationship with China is very strong on all fronts," Geithner said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua ahead of his departure for China, "I think that both countries have played enormously important roles in trying to lift the global economy away from financial crisis."

During the Beijing talks, the Obama administration's economic leaders will exchange views with their Chinese counterparts on four key areas, including promotion of trade and investment cooperation, strong recovery and more balanced growth, a resilient financial system, and strengthening of the international financial and economic architecture.

He said the S&ED was an enormously important mechanism because it provided the two countries the chance to build a much closer cooperative relationship on economic and financial issues at a time of great challenges globally.

China hoped that through the dialogue, China and the U.S. would enhance mutual understanding, strengthen strategic mutual trust as well as coordination and cooperation in the bilateral, regional and global dimensions, so as to promote the development of positive, cooperative and comprehensive China-U.S. relations, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said at a news briefing on Thursday.