In thaw, China invites Gates to visit
Source: Agencies |
October 12, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S Defense Minister Liang Guanglie formally invited US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to visit China when the two met yesterday on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific defense summit in Hanoi, Vietnam.
It was a step toward reviving bilateral military ties that China suspended earlier this year over planned US arms sales to Taiwan.
Gates has accepted the invitation to visit next year.
"I agreed. We still have to work out the timing," Gates told reporters traveling with him.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the visit would probably come early in 2011.
Liang stressed the importance of military-to-military ties with the United States, while reminding Gates that arms sales to Taiwan were still a thorn.
Liang said military relations constitute an important part of bilateral ties.
Currently, the two countries are facing some obstacles in developing military relations, chiefly over the US arms sales to Taiwan.
Yesterday's meeting was the first one between the two defense chiefs after bilateral military ties soured in January following the Pentagon's decision to sell the nearly US$6.4 billion arms package to the island.
Liang said it is important for the two countries to respect each other's core interests and major concerns, continuously consolidate strategic mutual trust, decrease suspicion and misjudgment, and properly settle differences and sensitive issues in order for bilateral military ties to develop in a continuous and stable way.
Liang said China would work with the US "to facilitate gradual solutions to (outstanding) problems with a view to lifting the China-US military-to-military relationship out of the current on-again, off-again cycle and enabling a track of sustained and steady development."
China has suspended military-to-military ties with the US several times over the years in response to US arms sales to Taiwan.
President Hu Jintao was planning to visit the US next year. Guan Youfei, deputy director of the external affairs office of China's Defence Ministry, said the trip would become "the top priority of bilateral relations in the near future."
Liang also met with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa yesterday. Liang said a discussion with Kitazawa went very well and would "of course be positive" for China-Japan relations.
Liang met Kitazawa at a hotel coffee shop instead of a more formal setting, and said Japan should "properly handle sensitive issues in bilateral relations so as to put the relationship back on a normal track at an early date."
Kitazawa was encouraged by the fact that a meeting took place at all, but suggested the air was not completely clear in the wake of Japan's detention for more than two weeks of the Chinese captain of a fishing boat that collided with Japan Coast Guard boats in China's Diaoyu Islands in early September.
"There is still an atmosphere in China that is not completely positive about improving relations," Kitazawa said in remarks carried on Japanese NHK public TV.
"I got the impression that a bit more time may be necessary."
Kitazawa urged Liang to reconsider China's postponement of a Japanese naval training visit, which was supposed to take place on October 15, but Liang refused, Kyodo news said.
It was a step toward reviving bilateral military ties that China suspended earlier this year over planned US arms sales to Taiwan.
Gates has accepted the invitation to visit next year.
"I agreed. We still have to work out the timing," Gates told reporters traveling with him.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the visit would probably come early in 2011.
Liang stressed the importance of military-to-military ties with the United States, while reminding Gates that arms sales to Taiwan were still a thorn.
Liang said military relations constitute an important part of bilateral ties.
Currently, the two countries are facing some obstacles in developing military relations, chiefly over the US arms sales to Taiwan.
Yesterday's meeting was the first one between the two defense chiefs after bilateral military ties soured in January following the Pentagon's decision to sell the nearly US$6.4 billion arms package to the island.
Liang said it is important for the two countries to respect each other's core interests and major concerns, continuously consolidate strategic mutual trust, decrease suspicion and misjudgment, and properly settle differences and sensitive issues in order for bilateral military ties to develop in a continuous and stable way.
Liang said China would work with the US "to facilitate gradual solutions to (outstanding) problems with a view to lifting the China-US military-to-military relationship out of the current on-again, off-again cycle and enabling a track of sustained and steady development."
China has suspended military-to-military ties with the US several times over the years in response to US arms sales to Taiwan.
President Hu Jintao was planning to visit the US next year. Guan Youfei, deputy director of the external affairs office of China's Defence Ministry, said the trip would become "the top priority of bilateral relations in the near future."
Liang also met with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa yesterday. Liang said a discussion with Kitazawa went very well and would "of course be positive" for China-Japan relations.
Liang met Kitazawa at a hotel coffee shop instead of a more formal setting, and said Japan should "properly handle sensitive issues in bilateral relations so as to put the relationship back on a normal track at an early date."
Kitazawa was encouraged by the fact that a meeting took place at all, but suggested the air was not completely clear in the wake of Japan's detention for more than two weeks of the Chinese captain of a fishing boat that collided with Japan Coast Guard boats in China's Diaoyu Islands in early September.
"There is still an atmosphere in China that is not completely positive about improving relations," Kitazawa said in remarks carried on Japanese NHK public TV.
"I got the impression that a bit more time may be necessary."
Kitazawa urged Liang to reconsider China's postponement of a Japanese naval training visit, which was supposed to take place on October 15, but Liang refused, Kyodo news said.
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