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.
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