The United States and China have agreed to set up military-to-military channels to “deconflict and deescalate any problems” following the “historic” meeting between the countries’ leaders, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, according to the US defence secretary.

In a statement on X on Saturday, Pete Hegseth said he and his Chinese counterpart, Minister of National Defence Dong Jun, made the decision following a phone call the night before.

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There was no immediate comment from Beijing.

Hegseth said the pair, who also met in Malaysia following the Trump-Xi summit in South Korea, “agree that peace, stability, and good relations are the best part for our two great and strong countries”.

“Admiral Dong and I also agreed that we should set up military-to-military channels to deconflict and deescalate any problems that arise,” he added.

Experts have long advocated direct military contacts between the two superpowers, whose navies operate extensively in the Asia Pacific, saying the hotlines were the best way to avoid unintentional escalation.

However, such contacts have remained irregular as tensions between the two nations ebb and rise.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a US-based think tank, said in May that most of the more than 90 communications channels between the US and Chinese governments went dormant during Trump’s first term as US president, from 2017 to 2021.

China went on to cut the few links with the US military in 2022, under the administration of the US’s then-president, Joe Biden, when the then-speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan, the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its province.

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The development was followed by a series of close encounters between the Chinese and US militaries in the contested South China Sea as well as in the Taiwan Strait.

These included the US military accusing a Chinese fighter jet of crossing in front of a US surveillance flight over the South China Sea in May 2023, in what it called an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver”. Days later, in June that year, the US military said a Chinese Navy destroyer sailed across the path of a US destroyer in another “unsafe” manoeuvre.

Beijing, at the time, said the US was to blame, and accused its rival of deliberately “provoking risk” by sending vessels near its shores.

The tensions eased following a meeting between Biden and Xi in November 2023, with the two leaders also agreeing to resume high-level military-to-military communications.

The CSIS said in May that such communications have been “limited” since Trump’s return to office in January this year. It also noted that the US and China have no crisis management channels, further increasing the risk of escalation, as Trump also ratcheted up a trade war against Beijing.

Trump and Xi, in their meeting in South Korea on October 30, took several steps to lower the temperature, including the US president easing the tariff rate on Chinese goods from 57 percent to 47 percent.

Trump also said that China had agreed to keep the supply of rare earth metals flowing. However, no deal was announced on the sale of TikTok to US investors or on possible plans to sell Nvidia’s advanced semiconductor chips.

Trump also announced that he would travel to China in April, and said Xi would come to the US soon after.

Hegseth met Dong, the Chinese defence minister, the day after the Trump-Xi summit, on the sidelines of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia.

“I highlighted the importance of maintaining a balance of power in the Indo-Pacific and emphasized U.S. concerns about China’s activities in the South China Sea, around Taiwan, and towards U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific,” he said in a post on X following the meeting.

The “United States does not seek conflict, it will continue to stoutly defend its interests and ensure it has the capabilities in the region to do so”, he added.

The Chinese Ministry of National Defence said that Dong had told Hegseth that the reunification of China and Taiwan is an “unstoppable historical trend” and urged the US to exercise caution in both words and actions on the Taiwan issue.

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It quoted Dong as saying that China was committed to peaceful development while resolutely safeguarding its national security interests.

“It possesses the full capability to respond calmly to any infringements or provocations,” the statement added.