The US and China agreed to resume bilateral military cooperation

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, following their bilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco, agreed to resume high-level dialogue between the militaries of the two countries.

As the TV channel notes CNN, the agreements reached also include regular meetings between the defense ministers of the United States and China. It is not specified when the first such meeting might take place.

Joe Biden and Xi Jinping also agreed to resume the China-US mechanism for maritime military security consultations and telephone conversations at various levels.

These contacts between the two countries were interrupted after the United States shot down a Chinese balloon over its territory in February 2023. China has since rejected repeated attempts by U.S. military leaders to contact their Chinese counterparts by telephone.

Bilateral negotiations between the US President and the President of the People’s Republic of China lasted about two hours. During the negotiations, Xi Jinping expressed the opinion that a possible conflict between China and the United States would entail unbearable consequences. In his opinion, Beijing and Washington need to do everything to avoid direct military confrontation. The Chinese President also noted that he is confident that Chinese-American relations have a “bright future.”

Read more about expectations from the meeting between the Russian President and the PRC leader in the Kommersant article “Waiting for Xi’s Hour.”

Alexander Kislov