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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS