China and the US will resume military consultations this month that were postponed last year when Washington announced a planned weapons sale to Taiwan, state media said yesterday.
The defense consultations will be held in Beijing on Feb. 27 and Feb. 28, the People’s Daily reported on its Web site, citing an unnamed official with the US Department of Defense.
“We want to continue exchanges with China and are seeking positive cooperative ties,” the official was quoted as saying.
The defense talks will resume only days after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton makes her first visit to China from Friday to next Sunday as the top envoy of the administration of US President Barack Obama, the report said.
The talks will take place once a year and could include discussions on the fight against global terrorism, it said.
China called off high-level military exchanges last October after the Pentagon notified the US Congress that it planned to sell US$6.5 billion of military hardware to Taiwan.
Beijing said the sales threatened Sino-US defense cooperation.
But defense ministry spokesman Colonel Hu Changming (胡昌明) said last month that China was willing to resume military cooperation with the Obama administration.
“In this new period we hope that both China and the US could make joint efforts to create favorable conditions and improve and promote military-to-military relations,” Hu said. “We call on the US to remove the obstacles to the growth of military relations between the two countries and to create favorable conditions for the healthy growth of military relations.”
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