The top US military commander in the Pacific can pick up the phone and call military leaders in dozens of countries scattered around the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Except China.
Admiral William Fallon wants that to change by improving military contacts between the world's sole superpower and the up-and-coming Asian power.
"I try to make it a point that I'm here to open a dialogue," Fallon said in a recent interview. "We've had very, very little dialogue between the Chinese military and our military for a number of reasons for a lot of years. So I believe there is a lot of distrust, a lot of fear of the unknown."
Fallon spoke a few days before US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld flew to Beijing for meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
As the US commander overseeing the Asia-Pacific region, Fallon will be at the forefront of developing these contacts. He said he aimed to involve younger officers in the effort. He added that he hoped China would participate in multilateral military meetings regularly held among other nations in the region, like the Asia-Pacific Chiefs of Defense meeting to be held in Honolulu this week.
Fallon has taken some initial steps in developing relations with China's military since becoming head of the US Pacific Command in February.
Last month he went to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong where he met with Chinese military officials and saw facilities never before visited by foreigners. A few months earlier, he hosted a senior Chinese military leader at Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.
Fallon said he was eager to go back and happy to invite his Chinese counterparts to return to the US.
"I want to expand this to below the level of old guys and gray hair," Fallon said. "I want to get this down so we have more exchanges at the working level, because that's where the future will be. The senior people will be out of here before too long. People coming from behind us need to have that exposure."
Fallon recalled how he had telephoned his Indian counterpart after this month's magnitude 7.6 earthquake in South Asia and asked how he could help with the relief effort. He said similar access to Chinese officials would be useful "for a host of reasons, the least of which would be natural disasters."
There are also opportunities in the multilateral regional forums sponsored by the US and other nations.
One will be held this week, when the chiefs of defense from around the Pacific are due to gather in Honolulu for informal talks.
Regrettably, Fallon said, China has so far declined to attend this meeting.
Fallon said these venues offer great opportunities for leaders to get to know one another and speak their minds, enabling them to overcome friction and find solutions to problems.
"China has yet to become a member of this kind of discourse. We want to encourage them to do it," Fallon said.
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