US seeks reboot of military contacts with China after Trump-Xi talks

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday that he and his Chinese counterpart agreed to restart military-to-military channels to “deconflict and deescalate.” 

Hegseth met Defence Minister Dong Jun on the sidelines of a regional summit in Malaysia, a day after Xi Jinping and Donald Trump held talks in South Korea.

"I just spoke to President Trump, and we agree — the relationship between the United States and China has never been better," Hegseth said in a post on X, adding that he had spoken with Dong again since their face-to-face meeting.

"The Admiral and I agree that peace, stability, and good relations are the best path for our two great and strong countries," he said, touting a path of "strength, mutual respect, and positive relations."

The Pentagon chief said Dong and he "also agreed that we should set up military-to-military channels to deconflict and de-escalate any problems that arise."

Such channels have existed for years but at times fallen out of use.

"We have more meetings on that coming soon," Hegseth said without elaborating.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing.

According to a Chinese defence ministry readout of their meeting in Malaysia, Dong had told Hegseth the countries should "strengthen policy-level dialogue to enhance trust and dispel uncertainty", and build a bilateral military relationship "characterised by equality, respect, peaceful coexistence and stable positive momentum."

Last week, Trump said he had agreed to reduce tariffs on China to 47% in exchange for Beijing resuming US soybean purchases, keeping rare earths exports flowing and cracking down on the illicit trade of fentanyl.

His remarks came after face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of Trump's whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.