CHINA: U.S. Defense Secretary meets Chinese President Hu Jintao, urges closer military cooperation between China and the U.S.

Record ID: 184710

  • Title: CHINA: U.S. Defense Secretary meets Chinese President Hu Jintao, urges closer military cooperation between China and the U.S.
  • Date: 19th October 2005
  • Summary: NATIONAL SEAL
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: International Relations,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVAPE6SGEDMBZJW6IJKBIZ0MP40
  • Story Text: China and the U.S. sought closer military cooperation on Wednesday (October 19) as U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Hu Jintao held talks in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Rumsfeld is trying to use his first trip to China as U.S. defence chief to both boost bilateral military ties and register the Pentagon's concerns about the rapid growth and secrecy of the Chinese military.
    Speaking at the start of the meeting, Hu said the contacts between the two sides were a positive step. "All of these meetings will help the military forces of our two countries to help enhance their mutual understanding and friendship and will also play an important facilitating role in promoting the growth of our relations as a whole," Hu said.
    Before the meeting with Hu, Rumsfeld visited China's Second Artillery Corps, a strategic missile facility at Qinghe, outside Beijing. Rumsfeld thanked his hosts during the meeting with Hu. "We have had some excellent discussions last evening and this morning. The minister of defence has been a most gracious host and we are appreciative of that as well," Rumsfeld said.
    Earlier on Wednesday (October 19), Rumsfeld told some 30 young officials that China's tremendous economic and trade growth gave it new responsibility for "the international system's health and success" and made the transparency of Chinese decision-making a critical issue. He also aired his concerns about Chinese military secrecy. "A growth in China's power projection, understandably, leads other nations to question the intentions and to adjust their behaviour in some fashion," said Rumsfeld. "The rapid, and from our perspective at least, non-transparent nature of this build-up, contributes to their uncertainty," said Rumsfeld.
    Rumsfeld's words echoed a major speech in Singapore in June, when he said China's rapid military expansion was upsetting the balance of power in Asia, where the United States maintains key alliances with South Korea and Japan. Later on Wednesday, Rumsfeld attended a welcoming ceremony presided over by his Chinese counterpart, Cao Gangchuan. Defence chiefs from China and the U.S. sat down for talks looking for greater cooperation and to dispel mutual suspicion over each other's military programmes. Rumsfeld and Gangchuan met inside the headquarters of China's Central Military Commission. Rumsfeld said the two sides had reached common ground in their talks. "One of the things that I've learned is that I sense a desire on the part of the Minister and his team to do essentially that which those of us in the United States Defense Ministry wants to do, and that is to find activities and ways that we can work with each other that will contribute to demystifying what we see of them and what they see of us," said Rumsfeld.
    In an apparent bid to ease fears about China's burgeoning military budget, Cao told Rumsfeld the country was focused on living millions out of poverty. "It's our priority to lift (these people, the 30 million living in poverty in China) them out of poverty, therefore given the duties and obligations of the government, this is simply impossible for us to massively increase the investment into defence capabilities building," said Cao. Cao said the current military budget stood at 30.2
    Rumsfeld's week-long trip also includes stops in South Korea, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Lithuania.
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