Washington – American and Chinese military officers have met for their first conversations at work level since President Donald Trump assumed the position for the second time, with both parties sharing their respective concerns about military security in the seas.
The United States Indo-Pacific command said in a statement that the conversations, held on Wednesday and Thursday in the city of Shanghai in East China, focused on “reducing the incidents of insecure and non-professional actions” by the naval and aerial forces of China.
China’s Ministry of Defense said that US ships and military planes have been making “recognition, surveys and high intensity exercises in the sea and air spaces around China, which are prone to cause misunderstandings and calculation errors and endanger sovereignty and Chinese military security.”
China told the United States that it would continue “responding to all dangerous provocative actions” and “resolutely safeguarding national territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” said the Ministry’s statement.
The conversations were held in the same week Beijing made large -scale drills In waters and airspace around Taiwan island. The meeting also arrived shortly after the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth told his Japanese counterpart that Japan is “our indispensable partner to deter Chinese military aggression.”
The ties between Beijing and Washington have tensioned in recent years on issues such as commerce, cybersecurity, Taiwan and the southern Sea of China. Under Trump, a commercial war has worsened as its administration Tales tax and China announced retaliation measures.
To go back in China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific, the United States has intensified its presence in the region, navigating through the Taiwan Strait and performing exercises in the disputed sea in southern China. The United States opposes any forced acquisition of Taiwan, which Beijing claims to be part of the Chinese territory and promises to force if necessary.
But both governments also seek to keep the communications lines open, even through the semiannual conversations of the working group.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense said the two parties “made sincere and constructive exchanges about the security situation in maritime and aerial domains” this time in Shanghai and discussed measures to improve maritime military security between the two countries.
