Military representatives from U.S. Indo-Pacifichap Command, the U.S. Pacific Fleet and U.S. Pacific Air Forces met with their Chinese counterparts in Hawaii this week for the first substantial operator-level talks between the adversaries in more than two years.
The Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) Working Group meeting comes amid heightened tension between Washington and Beijing over increasingly aggressive Chinese military posturing toward the U.S.-backed island democracy of Taiwan.
This week’s talks in Honolulu coincided with President Biden’s ongoing push to cool friction with Chinese President Xi Jinping following last year’s shoot down by a U.S. fighter jet of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.
Mr. Biden held a telephone summit with Mr. Xi this week, with the MMCA talks playing out in the backdrop.
U.S. head of delegation Army Col. Ian Francis, director of Northeast Asia Policy, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said in a statement that “open, direct, and clear communications” with the Chinese military and all other military forces in the region is of “utmost importance to avoid accidents and miscommunication.”