U.S., China Talk Defense

[Coventina]

Source: Wall Street Journal

BEIJING -- U.S. and Chinese military experts will meet next month to discuss a spate of run-ins between the two sides' navies, but a lasting solution will require higher-level discussions, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday following the nations' first high-level defense talks in 18 months.

After two days of meetings with Chinese officials, U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy said the two sides agreed to convene a special meeting of defense experts in July to look at the incidents. Chinese defense officials confirmed the meetings, with both sides saying they hoped to avoid future incidents.

Over the past few months, U.S. and Chinese ships have had several run-ins. Most involved Chinese ships trying to hinder U.S. surveillance vessels from operating in China's economic zone, which Beijing says is off-limits to intelligence-gathering. The U.S. maintains that such zones are only for economic purposes and are international waters -- and thus open to other countries' navies.

Ms. Flournoy said the two sides did have differing views on how to interpret international law in this area but said next month's meeting could be valuable to iron out operational issues of how ships interact.

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