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Biden to talk with Xi about restoring US-China military communication — official

"When we’re talking about managing risks about avoiding conflict, this is exactly the sort of communication we need to be having both at senior levels of our military but also operator to operator," the source added

WASHINGTON, November 10. /TASS/. US President Joe Biden will discuss with Chinese President Xi Jinping the possibility of restoring communication between the two countries in the military field, a high-ranking US official said on Thursday during a special phone briefing, which was dedicated to the upcoming meeting between the US and Chinese leaders on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco (California).

"I’ll just start this, I will say that the president has been determined to take the necessary steps to restore <…> communications between the United States and China on the military side. And we’ll have more to say about that next week," he said.

According to the US official, Biden plans to push for restoring relations between the two countries’ military agencies.

The official pointed out that US representatives "raised the importance of Mil - Mil channels in nearly every conversation we’ve had with the Chinese."

"When we’re talking about managing risks about avoiding conflict, this is exactly the sort of communication we need to be having both at senior levels of our military but also operator to operator," he said.

Earlier, Axios reported citing sources that Biden and Xi Jinping were planning to announce the restoration of ties between the two countries’ military agencies on the sidelines of the APEC summit. According to the US news website, during his recent visit to Washington, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made it clear that Beijing was ready to bring back those channels of communication. The news website said that restoring these channels, which China suspended in 2022 in protest of then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, is one of the key priorities for the White House.

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China United States APEC Summit

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