Jimmy Carter becomes longest-living US president

WASHINGTON - Jimmy Carter on Friday passed George H. W. Bush to become the longest-living US President at the age of 94 years and 172 days.

Bush, the 41st US President, died on Nov 30, 2018, 171 days after he reached the age of 94.

Carter, born Oct 1, 1924, served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 after being the 76th governor of the southern state of Georgia for several years.

During his presidency, Carter, a Democrat, established a national energy policy to deal with the energy shortage, strengthened environmental protection, and created the Department of Education, while seeking to address the nation's economic woes of inflation and unemployment.

In foreign affairs, he obtained ratification of the Panama Canal treaties in 1977, helped bring amity between Egypt and Israel through the Camp David Accords in 1978, and established Washington's formal diplomatic ties with Beijing as well as reached an agreement with Moscow on the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II) in 1979.

Carter is an underrated president, US former senior diplomat J. Stapleton Roy said last week during a seminar at Johns Hopkins University.

"He was only in for four years, but in the first two years of his administration, he established diplomatic relations with China, he got the SALT II agreement, and he got the Camp David Accords," Roy said.

Carter's breakthrough with China was one of the major foreign policy accomplishments during his presidency.

In late 1978, Carter and the then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping reached a historic decision to establish full diplomatic relations between the United States and China on Jan 1, 1979, laying the foundation for the rapid growth of bilateral relations.

In January at Atlanta, Carter said in a symposium that the 40-year-long diplomatic relationship between the United States and China has contributed to peace, stability, and prosperity of both countries and beyond.

He noted that since 1979, peace and stability have prevailed in East Asia, the hotbed of conflicts and wars for long, and that both China and the United States have been blessed with economic growth.

"The 40th anniversary of this relationship is a testament to the ability of countries with different histories, cultures and political systems to work together for the greater good," Carter said in his article published in The Washington Post in December.

The former president also suggested that Washington and Beijing should continue to work together on global issues like the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula, counter-terrorism, environmental and climate change, and promoting development in Africa in particular.

"I believe they (the leaders) also must accept our conviction that the United States and China need to build their futures together, for themselves and for humanity at large," he added.