US-China military dialogue resumes for first time in over a year as top American officer talks with counterpart
- The video call between US General CQ Brown and China’s General Liu Zhenli is first senior military communication between countries since August 2022
- Focus will be on restoring US-China relations to the condition they were in before ‘spy balloon saga’ and Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, says expert
Air Force General CQ Brown, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart General Liu Zhenli via videoconference on Thursday in a step towards restoring military-to-military dialogue between the two global powers, the Pentagon has announced.
The talks mark the first senior military communication between Washington and Beijing since the Chinese government halted all such engagements in response to then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.
They followed a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco last month at which resumption of military dialogues was a major area of discussion.
On Thursday, the two military leaders “discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication”, the Pentagon said in a statement.
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Brown “reiterated the importance of the People’s Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings”, it added.
