Goodwill sets tone at Wang, Kerry's briefing

A joint news briefing by Foreign Minister Wang Yi and visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry was delayed for about three hours before finally beginning on Wednesday afternoon.

Initially, the long-awaited meeting in Beijing of the two top diplomats was tentatively scheduled to begin at 9:30 am and last two hours. After that the two would meet the media. But the talks were prolonged as the two diplomatic teams continued their discussion through a working lunch.

Upon arriving at the news briefing venue, Wang first apologized to reporters for keeping them waiting, as he and his counterpart had a "positive, candid and constructive meeting".