WASHINGTON: The United States and China have resumed talks this week on safety in interactions between the armed forces of the two countries after two years, said the US military on Friday.
The resumption of the discussions came after US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a summit in November last year agreed to resume military-to-military interaction and ease tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Representatives from US and Chinese military met for the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement Working Group in Hawaii from Tuesday to Thursday. This was the first such interaction since a virtual event in late 2021, said the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) in a statement.
The agreement is INDOPACOM’s primary means to discuss air and maritime operational safety directly with China’s military, US Army Colonel Ian Francis, the head of the American delegation, said in the statement.
Francis said direct, and candid communications with the PLA and with other military forces in the region is of extreme importance to avert accidents and miscommunication.
INDOPACOM said that during the discussions this week US and Chinese officials reviewed safety-related matters and discussed maritime and aviation operational safety.
The United States has repeatedly underscored incidents in recent years in which it says Chinese fighter jets and ships have operated around American and allied aircraft and ships in an unsafe manner.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin prior to Biden and Xi agreeing to resume military-to-military discussions, warned those accidents have the potential to spiral out of control, especially in the absence of open communication between armed force of America and China.
