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U.S. President Joe Biden sought to manage tensions over the
South China Sea in a call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on
Tuesday.
The two leaders had agreed to resume direct military talks when
they met in November.
In a statement, the U.S. military said officials from both
countries "reviewed safety-related events over the last few
years, and discussed sustaining maritime and aviation
operational safety and professionalism."
China's defence ministry said in a separate statement published
on Saturday that at the meetings the two sides conducted candid
and constructive exchanges on the China-U.S. maritime and air
security situation.
At the meetings, China also firmly opposed any attempt to
endanger its sovereignty and security in the name of freedom of
navigation and overflight, the ministry said.
The talks, known as the military maritime consultative agreement
(MMCA) working group, took place on April 3 and 4 in Honolulu
and were the first such meeting since 2021.
Prior to the November meeting between Biden and Xi, relations
between the superpowers had become increasingly acrimonious,
with friction over issues from Taiwan to China's military
activity in the South China Sea.
In October, the U.S. military said Chinese military aircraft had
carried out risky or reckless maneuvers close to U.S. aircraft
nearly 200 times since 2021.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh in
Shanghai; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Muralikumar
Anantharaman)
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