Upon the invitation of the U.S. Department of Energy, China and the U.S. held a bilateral meeting on ITER cooperation on July 1st 2016 in Washington D.C.. The two sides exchanged ideas on the schedule, budget and management of the ITER program. Both sides worked for better coordination regarding their respective positions on these issues to ensure smooth implementation of the project. The two sides also pledged to strengthen all-round bilateral cooperation in a wide range of areas such as magnetic confinement fusion, with an aim to make more contribution to the global sustainable development of mankind.

The meeting was attended by Jonathan Margolis, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. State Department; Adam Cohen, Deputy Under Secretary for Science and Energy of the Department of Energy; and U.S. officials in charge of the ITER program. The Chinese delegation was led by Mr. Ma Yanhe, Director General of the Department of Basic Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) with staff of ITER China. The cooperation with the U.S. on magnetic confinement fusion is a most stable and time-honoured tie between China and other ITER members. As part of the ITER program, research personnel of the two countries have carried out extensive joint experiments on related facilities, obtaining a number of outcomes.