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US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with his Chinese counterpart for the first time, in the latest effort to ease tensions between the militaries since President Joe Biden held a summit with Xi Jinping on last year.
The Pentagon and China’s Defense Ministry said Austin spoke Tuesday with Dong Jun, a retired admiral who became defense minister in December. This was the first significant engagement at ministerial level between the armies since November 2022.
The call is the latest effort to stabilize relations since Xi, the Chinese president, agreed in San Francisco to resume military engagements that China had halted after the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives visited Taiwan. United, Nancy Pelosi, in 2022. It also comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepares to visit China in the coming weeks.
Dong said military affairs are the key to implementing the consensus of the two presidents to stabilize and improve bilateral relations. The Chinese and US militaries “should seek a way to get along and base their interactions on respect for peace, prioritizing stability and building trust”, he told Austin, according to a statement released Wednesday by his department. .
A senior U.S. defense official said the call and other commitments “provide us with opportunities to prevent competition from escalating into conflict by speaking frankly about our concerns,” which he said include the China Sea South as well as peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
The Pentagon said the two officials discussed a range of regional and global security issues and Austin stressed the importance of freedom of navigation guaranteed by international law, particularly in the South China Sea.
According to the Chinese statement, Dong said: “The US side should recognize the Chinese side’s firm stance and truly respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea.” » He demanded “concrete actions” from the United States to ensure regional peace and a stable bilateral military relationship.
Senior US officials on Friday accused China of supplying Russia with a wide range of technology, including engines for cruise missiles and drones, which it said would allow Moscow to rebuild its defense industrial base.
Austin met Wei Fenghe, then defense minister, in Cambodia two years ago. Wei was replaced by Li Shangfu in March 2023, but Beijing refused to hold a meeting with Austin unless Washington lifted sanctions imposed on Li by the Trump administration in 2018.
At the Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore in June 2023, Austin and Li exchanged pleasantries while sitting at the same table at a dinner. But Li disappeared shortly after returning to China and was ousted in October amid a corruption investigation.
In a sign of a decline in tensions since the San Francisco summit, Chinese fighter planes have stopped “risky and coercive” interceptions which involve dangerous maneuvers around American spy planes.
But the Pentagon remains very concerned about Chinese behavior around the Second Thomas Shoal, a controversial reef in the South China Sea. In recent months, China’s coast guard has tried to prevent the Philippines from resupplying marines aboard a ship called Sierra Madre, housed on the reef.
Manila beached the ship in 1999 to strengthen its claim to the reef. Chinese coast guards used water cannons to block resupply missions, injuring Filipino sailors. Biden warned China last week that the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Sierra Madre.
This month, U.S. officers from the Indo-Pacific Command met with Chinese officers for negotiations on the Military and Maritime Consultation Agreement aimed at reducing the risk of accidents between the militaries.
U.S. and Chinese defense policy officials also restarted a previously routine dialogue in January. In December, General CQ Brown, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had his first telephone conversation with his counterpart, General Liu Zhenli.
But the top defense official said Monday that China has still not agreed to host a meeting between Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral John Aquilino and his two People’s Liberation Army counterparts .