On October 29, 2012, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with members of the Board of Directors of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a non-governmental organization in the United States, including Co-Chairman Sam Nunn (Former Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services) and Co-Chairman Ted Turner (Founder of CNN), Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Igor S. Ivanov, Former Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords of UK Shirley Williams and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Yang Fujia. The two sides exchanged views on nuclear security, Sino-US relations, DPRK's nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue, Syria and other topics of mutual interest.