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Sino-US military dialogue resumes

By Peng Kuang and Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-27 07:43

Military dialogue between China and the US resumes Friday with a two-day mid-level talk in Beijing, setting the tone for bilateral military ties between China and Barack Obama's administration.

Analysts expected both sides to discuss their security concerns - the core interests of which remain distinct - while trying to draft a timeline for formally recommencing military exchanges.

The exchanges were halted last October, following a proposal to sell $6.5 billion of arms to Taiwan made in the Bush administration's twilight period.

"The talk will reaffirm the importance of the military-to-military relationship and its mutual benefit," Bonnie Glaser, senior associate with the US-based Center for Strategic & International Studies, said.

"A positive outcome would include scheduling a date for the defense consultative talks and a discussion of the agenda of exchanges for the coming year."

The talks closely followed US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's maiden trip to Beijing last week, in which the two sides agreed to expand their strategic dialogue to include security.

Although yielding few concrete results, the meeting is a move in the right direction for the future, analysts said.

"It is more of a symbolic gesture but is still important because both sides need to begin with first steps," Peking University professor Zhu Feng said.

The Beijing meeting represents "an opportunity" for the US to expand dialogue with China on regional and global security issues while broadening cooperation, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said on Feb 16.

The Ministry of National Defense, which formally announced the talks five days after the Pentagon, insisted the US should faithfully respect China's core interests and major security concerns to create favorable conditions for Sino-US military ties.

"To a certain degree, the US is more eager for the Beijing talks," Pan Zheng, senior researcher on US strategy with China's National Defense University, said.

"The US needs China to solve problems relevant to its core interests - namely the nuclear issue in Iran in the Middle East and the issue of the Korean Peninsula in the Asia-Pacific region.

"China can help the US with its core interests, and the US must understand China's needs, too," Pan said.