OREANDA-NEWS. Defense officials from the United States and China held the first meeting of the bilateral crisis communication working group via videoconference. This was reported in the US Defense Department’s statement released on October 29.

From the American side representatives of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Indo-Pacific Command of the US Armed Forces, from the Chinese side representatives of the Office for International Military Cooperation under the Central Military Commission participated in the negotiations.

The meeting provided an opportunity to establish mutual understanding between the American military and the People’s Liberation Army of China on the principles of preventing and resolving crises, as well as reducing the risk to the armed forces. Both sides agreed on the importance of creating mechanisms to ensure timely communication during a crisis, as well as the need maintaining regular communication channels to prevent crises and conduct post-crisis assessments, the Pentagon said.