The United States and China will resume military-to-military communications “in the coming months”, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday, as Beijing hailed the “stabilizing” security relations between the countries.
Austin met with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in the first substantive face-to-face talks between the two defense chiefs in 18 months.
Dong and Austin met for over an hour at the luxury hotel hosting the security forum that is attended by defense officials from around the world and in recent years has become a barometer of US-China relations.
Austin said telephone conversations between US and Chinese military commanders would resume “in the coming months,” according to a readout released by the Pentagon.
He also welcomed plans for a “crisis-communications working group” with China by the end of the year, the statement said.
Describing the talks as “positive,” Chinese defense spokesman Wu Qian told reporters that military-to-military relations were “currently stopping their decline and stabilizing.”
Wu cautioned that it was not possible for Beijing and Washington to solve all bilateral problems in one meeting, but said “talking is better than not talking.”
This year’s Shangri-La Dialogue comes a week after China held military drills around Taiwan and warned of war over the US-backed island following the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing has described as a “dangerous separatist.”
Self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, tops the list of disputes between the rivals.
China is also furious over the United States’ deepening defense ties in the Asia-Pacific, particularly with the Philippines, and its regular deployment of warships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
Beijing views this as part of a decades-long US effort to contain it.
Jing Xuan Teng and Martin Abbugao, with AFP
