Gates’ China Trip Aims for Lasting Military-to-Military Relationship

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2011 — Defense Sec­re­tary Robert M. Gates’ offi­cial vis­it to Chi­na next week is designed to lay the foun­da­tion for a last­ing mil­i­tary-to-mil­i­tary rela­tion­ship between the two nations, a Defense Depart­ment offi­cial said here today.

The “on-again, off-again” rela­tion­ship the Unit­ed States has had with Chi­na is harm­ful and it is in both coun­tries’ inter­ests to devel­op bet­ter and endur­ing mil­i­tary-to-mil­i­tary rela­tions, Michael Schif­fer, deputy assis­tant sec­re­tary of defense for Asian and Pacif­ic secu­ri­ty affairs, said at a Nation­al Press Club forum host­ed by the Inter­na­tion­al Insti­tute of Strate­gic Studies. 

Gates is sched­uled to leave Jan. 8 for his first offi­cial vis­it to Chi­na since 2007. Chi­nese offi­cials sus­pend­ed mil­i­tary rela­tions with the Unit­ed States ear­ly last year in protest of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. 

U.S. offi­cials are opti­mistic that mil­i­tary-to-mil­i­tary rela­tions with Chi­na can get back on track, Schif­fer said, not­ing that rep­re­sen­ta­tives of both sides talked about mov­ing for­ward dur­ing the Defense Con­sul­ta­tive Talks held here in Decem­ber. Also, he said, offi­cials of China’s Peo­ples Lib­er­a­tion Army have been quot­ed in the Chi­nese media about the “dan­gers” of not hav­ing mil­i­tary ties with the Unit­ed States. 

In build­ing a durable frame­work for last­ing rela­tions, Schif­fer said, Gates and his Chi­nese coun­ter­part must show their nations’ mutu­al respect and trust of each oth­er, have reci­procity in areas such as mil­i­tary coop­er­a­tion and trade, work for the coun­tries’ mutu­al inter­ests, work to reduce secu­ri­ty risks in Asia, and con­tin­ue to talk even when there are disagreements. 

Gates’ goals for his meet­ings with Chi­nese offi­cials include cre­at­ing clear and open chan­nels for dia­logue and hav­ing greater trans­paren­cy into each other’s mil­i­taries, Schif­fer said. 

“These need to be sub­stan­tive engage­ments,” he said. “Not engage­ments for engage­ments’ sake.” 

“We have an impor­tant oppor­tu­ni­ty here to recast mil­i­tary-to-mil­i­tary rela­tions,” Schif­fer added. “We believe these rela­tions are too impor­tant to let them lag.” 

Still, Schif­fer said, Gates also plans to dis­cuss spe­cif­ic mil­i­tary issues that could be con­tentious, includ­ing nuclear mis­sile defense, space and cyber oper­a­tions, and con­tain­ing threats from North Korea. 

“We’re not under any illu­sion” that U.S. and Chi­nese offi­cials won’t con­tin­ue to dis­agree on some top­ics, Schif­fer said. But the coun­tries need to get to a point where mil­i­tary-to-mil­i­tary rela­tions can con­tin­ue in spite of dis­agree­ments, he said. 

“We have an extra­or­di­nary oppor­tu­ni­ty to define our rela­tion­ship not by the obsta­cles between us, but by our com­mon inter­ests,” he said. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs) 

Face­book and/or on Twit­ter

Team GlobDef

Seit 2001 ist GlobalDefence.net im Internet unterwegs, um mit eigenen Analysen, interessanten Kooperationen und umfassenden Informationen für einen spannenden Überblick der Weltlage zu sorgen. GlobalDefence.net war dabei die erste deutschsprachige Internetseite, die mit dem Schwerpunkt Sicherheitspolitik außerhalb von Hochschulen oder Instituten aufgetreten ist.

Alle Beiträge ansehen von Team GlobDef →