U.S. Relations With the People's Republic of China (2009)

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

News Transcript

Presenter: Commander, U.S. Pacific Command Adm. Timothy Keating
July 22, 2009

DoD News Briefing with Adm. Keating from the Pentagon

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Q: Next week, there will be U.S.-China bilateral talks -- very important, high-level talks, but of course with the Treasury and the State Department. I wonder, as you hand over the reins to your successor in Honolulu, how you --

ADM. KEATING: That's not for 90 days. That's a long way away.

Q: Okay. Okay, we hope to see you back.

ADM. KEATING: (Laughs.) Yeah.

Q: Anyway, the -- things are (in training).

ADM. KEATING: Yeah.

Q: How do you assess the Chinese -- the mil-mil component of U.S.-China relations? What would you like to see done? And finally, is -- does the cooperation over North Korea afford new opportunities for potential U.S.-China mil-mil?

ADM. KEATING: Yeah, it's a great question. As it happens, I'm attending the session here in town at the invitation of the Secretary of State next Monday and Tuesday, and I'm grateful for the -- to be included. I think it's important to have Pacific Command in the room.

The mil-to-mil dialogue with China is not robust right now. It has been essentially on hold since our latest announcement of Taiwan arms sales in October of 2008. I've not been to Beijing in over a year, nor has any senior military leader been to Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii in that same time.

As you're well aware, Michele Flournoy just returned from senior- level discussions with colleagues and counterparts in China. We hope that this is a clear signal on the part of the Chinese of their intention to resume pure military-to-military dialogue.

I am not scheduled to go to Beijing, for what it's worth. I do think, however, that Admiral Bob Willard, presuming Senate confirmation, after he takes command, will go to China in -- I don't know, sometime maybe into 2010.

So we would rather have more frequent dialogue. We would have -- more importantly, we'd rather have more robust dialogue, something substantive. There's plenty of substance to discuss. Right now it's not going on.

We hope that the MMCA -- Military Maritime Consultative Agreement -- meets in the near future. It was agreed to by China and by the United States Department of Defense, precise scheduling not certain. It's an important dialogue in a relatively narrow sense of MMCA; in a broader sense, mil to mil with Pacific Command. We hope that it is invigorated sooner than later.

Yes, ma'am.

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