Top US military officer General Charles CQ Brown met with China’s General Liu Zhenli on Thursday, ending a more than year-long pause in high-level military discussions between the two countries.
China halted the negotiations to protest a visit to Taiwan by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2022, but officials from the two nations decided to resume them when they met last month.
In a statement, Captain Jereal Dorsey said, “Brown, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication”.
“Brown reiterated the importance of the People’s Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings”, the statement reads.
It went on to say, “The two leaders also discussed several global and regional security issues during their video teleconference”.
Beijing reacted angrily to Pelosi’s travel to Taiwan in August 2022, canceling cooperation with Washington on crucial topics such as climate change, anti-drug efforts, and military talks, and launching its largest-ever war games near the island.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has pledged to take control of the island one day, using force if necessary, and it is irritated by any official communication between Taipei and foreign countries.
Taiwan is constantly fearful of a Chinese invasion, and Beijing has increased its rhetoric and military operations in recent years.
In November, US President Joe Biden met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in California for their first summit in a year, during which they promised to restore military-to-military communications and reduce tensions between the two countries.
The agreement to restart the negotiations, which Washington had repeatedly pressed for, was described by Biden as ‘critically important’, adding that miscalculations on either side can cause real, real trouble with a country like China.
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