BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) -The United States and China held theatre-level commander talks for the first time on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said, as the two nations look to stabilise military ties and prevent military misunderstandings.
Washington seeks to open new channels of regular military communication with Beijing since ties sank to a historic low after the United States downed a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon last year.
Admiral Sam Paparo, head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, held a video telephone call with his counterpart Wu Yanan of the Southern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Both sides had an “in depth exchange of views on issues of common concern,” the Chinese defence ministry said in a readout.
Paparo urged the PLA “to reconsider its use of dangerous, coercive, and potentially escalatory tactics in the South China Sea and beyond”, the Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that described the exchange as “constructive and respectful”.
He also stressed the importance of continued talks to clarify intent and reduce the risk of misperception or miscalculation.
The call followed a meeting in Beijing last month between U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s leading military adviser, at which the talks were agreed.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s areas of responsibility include the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, two hotspots for regional tension that are flashpoints in U.S.-China ties.
Most two-way military engagements were suspended for almost two years after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022.
Last week Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to China, said he was worried by “the aggressive nature” of its military buildup and its navy’s intimidating behaviour towards U.S. allies the Philippines and Japan.
“I certainly worry about an unintended conflict between our military forces, an accident, an accidental collision,” he told the magazine Foreign Policy in an online interview.
The United States plans to send a senior Pentagon official to a major security forum in China later this week.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing, Farah Master in Hong Kong and the Beijing newsroom; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Clarence Fernandez)