Mattis seeks resilient US ties with China
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told his Chinese counterpart yesterday that the world's two largest economies needed to deepen high-level ties so as to navigate tension and rein in the risk of inadvertent conflict.
Mattis saw firsthand last month how mounting Sino-US friction can undermine military contacts when Beijing up-ended plans for him to travel to China in October to meet Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.
It was retaliation for recent US sanctions, one of a growing number of flashpoints in relations between Washington and Beijing that include a bitter trade war, Taiwan and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea.
Mattis and Wei made no remarks as they shook hands at the start of their talks on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Singapore. The meeting ended without any public statements.
Randall Schriver, a US assistant secretary of defense who helps guide Pentagon policy in Asia, said Mattis and Wei largely restated differing views on thorny security disputes but agreed on the need for durable ties.
"Both acknowledged that the meeting itself was significant and that high-level communication can help," Schriver said. "So I think it was productive in that regard."
Schriver said making military-to-military ties with China less brittle would be crucial to helping reduce the chances of a devastating conflict.
"Two nuclear-armed powers with regional, if not global, interests - we need to make sure that when we step on one another's toes, it doesn't escalate into something that would be catastrophic," Schriver told reporters traveling with Mattis.
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