Top US, Chinese military officials hold first video call

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 US 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.

The US Indo-Pacific Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The call followed a meeting in Beijing last month between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s leading military adviser, seeking such talks.

The US 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 US-China ties.

Most two-way military engagements were suspended for almost two years after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in August 2022.

Last week Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, said he was worried by “the aggressive nature” of its military buildup and its navy’s intimidating behaviour towards US 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.