WASHINGTON — China and the United States vowed to team up for global health progress on Sept 28 in a bid to beef up health and safety in both countries and the world at large.

The consensus was announced in the joint communique of the first China-US Social and People-to-People Dialogue, co-chaired by visiting Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The document said the two countries have achieved fruitful results in health cooperation, addressed major health challenges faced by both sides, and managed to promote health and prosperity.

According to the dialogue’s action plan, China and the United States will take into account proposals of the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative to deepen cooperation for safety, progress and innovation in health matters for both sides and the rest of the world, and commit themselves to building a community of shared destiny where health matters are concerned.

The two partners agreed to launch cooperative programs to prevent and control such major communicable diseases as AIDS, promote exchanges and dialogue between health personnel at various levels, and boost health research on such noninfectious diseases as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases as well as cancer.

Besides, they vowed to commit their efforts to helping establish a public health system in African countries during the post-Ebola era, deepening their cooperation in training health personnel in Africa and strengthening the continent’s ability to prevent and control diseases, and jointly carrying out public health programs, including vaccinations against hepatitis B for newborns in Sierra Leone.

China and the United States held their first Social and People-to-People Dialogue on Sept 28 in Washington. It is one of the four high-level dialogue mechanisms established during a meeting between President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in April.