US Pentagon chief speaks with Chinese counterpart for first time since November 2022
Source: AP
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Updated 8:35 AM CDT, April 16, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with China’s national defense minister Tuesday morning, in the latest in a series of U.S. steps to improve communications with the Chinese military and reduce unsafe and aggressive incidents in the Indo-Pacific.
It was the first time Austin has talked to Adm. Dong Jun and the first time he has spoken at length with any Chinese counterpart since November 2022. The call comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China this month for talks.
Washington and Beijing have been working to expand communications and ease escalating tensions. Military-to-military contact stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communication after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
The thaw in relations between the two world powers got a kick-start last November when President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. About a month later, Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a video call — in the first senior military-to-military contact since the Pelosi visit.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/china-austin-military-pentagon-blinken-1f3923ce6284314ba38c101b6fee8b80
