Senior US and Chinese defence officials met in Washington this week in the latest sign of renewed military-to-military communication as the two countries seek to stabilise ties.
Alvaro Smith, a deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, Taiwan and Mongolia at the Pentagon, met with China’s Major General Ye Jiang, Deputy Director of the Central Military Commission Office for International Military Cooperation, for the 19th annual US-China Defence Policy Coordination Talks from December 15 to 16, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The talks this week follow Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s meeting with China’s Minister of National Defence, Admiral Dong Jun, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Defence Ministers Meeting Plus in Malaysia on October 31.
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That was the first face-to-face meeting between the two countries’ defence chiefs during the second term of the Donald Trump administration.
After those talks, Hegseth said the two countries had agreed to “set up military-to-military channels to deconflict and de-escalate any problems that arise”.
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Smith reiterated that message this week. In a Tuesday statement, the Pentagon said Smith highlighted the department’s “support for a wider range of military-to-military communications” with the People’s Liberation Army “with the goal of supporting strategic stability as well as crisis deconfliction and de-escalation, more broadly”.