No disruption in military engagement with China: Pentagon

The Pentagon today said there are "issues" that need to be worked out in its military exchanges with China but asserted that there is no disruption in the engagement.
"There's been no pause or disruption to military-to- military engagements between us and China. This is something we want to see continue. There's obviously issues to work out, here. But there's been no pause or disruption," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.
Next week, the US and China are holding defence consultative meeting.
David Helvey, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for East Asia, will host the Defence Policy Coordination Talks (DPCT) with Rear Admiral Li Ji, Deputy Director of the Chinese Ministry of National Defence Foreign Affairs Office here at the Pentagon on February 5, a Department of Defence Spokesman, Jeffrey Pool told PTI.

"The US delegation will include representatives from the Joint Staff, US Pacific Command, the State Department, and the National Security Council Staff. The Chinese delegation will include representatives of the Ministry of National Defence and relevant military bodies," Pool said.
"The meeting is an important component of the broader programme of engagements between the two nations' militaries, which seeks to foster sustained and substantive dialogue, deepen practical cooperation in areas of mutual interest, and focus on enhancing risk reduction," he said.

"This year's DPCT will emphasise the positive momentum sustained in the US-China military-to-military relationship over the past year, which included historic agreements to establish new confidence building measures between the two militaries, and endorse the robust programme of engagements planned for the rest of the year," Pool said in response to a question.

At the Pentagon briefing, Kirby said: "We're going to be discussing a full range of defence relationship issues with our Chinese counterparts, as we often do.
"We want to continue to improve and increase transparency between us and China and the Chinese military as much as possible, so that we can pare down the level of misunderstanding and improve trust and avoid what could be potentially dangerous incidents, as have occurred in the past, and more broadly, work towards a better, more collaborative relationship with China in the Asia-Pacific region.