The US and China today held theater-level commander talks for the first time, Chinese authorities said, as the two nations look to stabilize military ties and prevent military misunderstandings.
Washington seeks to open new channels of regular military communication with Beijing since ties sank to a historic low after the US downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year.
Photo: AFP
Admiral Sam Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, held a video telephone call with his counterpart Wu Yanan (吳亞男) of the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).
Both sides had an "in-depth exchange of views on issues of common concern," the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said in a readout.
Paparo urged the PLA "to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond," the Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that described the exchange as "constructive and respectful."
He also stressed the importance of continued talks to clarify intent and reduce the risk of misperception or miscalculation.
The call followed a meeting in Beijing last month between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese President Xi Jinping's (習近平) leading military adviser, at which the talks were agreed.
The US Indo-Pacific Command's areas of responsibility include the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, two hotspots for regional tension that are flashpoints in US-China ties.
Most two-way military engagements were suspended for almost two years after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022.
Last week US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said he was worried by "the aggressive nature" of its military buildup and its navy's intimidating behavior toward US allies the Philippines and Japan.
"I certainly worry about an unintended conflict between our military forces, an accident, an accidental collision," he told the magazine Foreign Policy in an online interview.
The US plans to send a senior Pentagon official to a major security forum in China later this week.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS