Article Posted on : - Jan 08, 2011

A file photo.

WASHINGTON (PTI): US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is set to visit China to resume bilateral military dialogue, which was stalled last year after the USD 6.4 billion American arms sale to Taiwan and the Dalai Lama's White House tour, and is expected to ask Beijing to be more open on defence-related issues.

Gates' three-day Beijing trip from Sunday comes a week before the US visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao and is being seen as important for the success of the Sino-US Summit in Washington later this month.

"He goes into it encouraged, optimistic, hopeful," Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell said last evening.

Gates would be visiting Chinese army's Second Artillery Corps, the headquarters of the Chinese nuclear command, besides meeting the top Chinese leadership, including President Hu.

He would hold talks with General Liang Guanglie, China's Minister of National Defence; Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping; and Gen Xu Caihou, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission. He would also meet Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

"We're hopeful ... we can have productive discussions in Beijing about how we build a more durable framework to ensure as we go forward we have a relationship in the military-security sphere that is reliable and sustainable and allows us to have clear lines of communications between our leaders," a senior US officials told reporters separately, preferring anonymity.

"We've managed over the past couple of months through the military maritime consultative meetings held in Hawaii and the defence consultative talks in Washington last month to get the military-to-military relationship moving again," the official said.

In essence, the US wants to build a relationship between the Department of Defence and the Chinese military and also the two countries, that is defined not by the obstacles that stand between them, but by their common interests, he added.

The senior US official said the Defence Secretary would be seeking answers to a number of questions from the Chinese so that there can be more sustained dialogue between the two countries.

The US wants a stable, sustained and reliable military-to-military relationship with the Chinese, and nothing really precludes this, the official said.

Noting that even in the darkest days of America's relationship with the Soviet Union, it still had ways to contact Soviet military leaders, he said China is not an enemy, and the US and China should be able to continue the dialogue.

Gates, who last visited China in 2007, is expected to urge the Chinese leaders to be more open and transparent about defence-related matters, according to officials here.

The US-China military talks were stalled last year after the Obama Administration's USD 6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan and the White House visit of the Dalai Lama.

During his trip, the Defence Secretary hopes to discuss a wide range of issues with Chinese officials, including areas where the US and China have mutual concerns such as North Korea, Iran and piracy and areas where they disagree or are hazy, such as cyber security and military modernisation, the senior official said.

Gates would also be travelling to Japan and South Korea, during his current Asia trip.