The US expects its highest-level bilateral military meeting with China in 18 months to be dominated by discussions about containing North Korea.
China suspended the military sessions in protest over weapon sales to Taiwan approved by the Bush administration. The Obama administration has been eager to rebuild links, in part to find ways to prevent incidents at sea between vessels of the two navies, which have been frequent over the past few months.
Michele Flournoy, US undersecretary of defense for policy, will visit Beijing for two days of defence consultation talks with Ma Xiaotian, deputy chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s general staff, from Tuesday, in the first such session since December 2007.
“North Korea will factor in very strongly,” a senior US defence official told reporters. “The recent activities by North Korea of course occasioned a UN Security Council resolution. And the activities are of great concern to China. So I expect that we will be having extended discussions, on matters where we can find common interest and co-operate.”
Following North Korea’s recent aggressive posturing, China has taken a tougher stance towards its reclusive neighbour, reflected in its support for sanctions against Pyongyang.
However, it remains unclear to what extent Beijing is ready to take more radical measures such as forced inspections of North Korean ships suspected of carrying cargo related to weapons of mass destruction.
The US defence official said China was expected to operate within the guidelines of the UN Security Council resolution, and such ship inspections were covered by it. But Beijing has stated before that it believes the proliferation security initiative – the effort launched by the US that includes the ship searches - to be partly at odds with UN principles.
“We would hope that China would use whatever influence they have with North Korea to convince them to change their behaviour,” the official said. “We also continue to look to China to continue and expand their support for the UN Security Council resolution that we all agreed to.”
As Ms Flournoy prepares to address this issue, the Pentagon has sent a warship to shadow a North Korean vessel suspected of carrying illegal arms in an effort to shine the spotlight on countries that facilitate weapons proliferation.
The USS McCain is following the Kang Nam, a North Korean vessel suspected of carrying arms.
"The thinking is to shine the light on states 'flagging' the ship and states giving them port call permission," the official told the Financial Times.
Ms Flournoy is scheduled to travel to Tokyo and Seoul later in the week for consultations on North Korea.
The US continues to demand that the PLA be more transparent about its spending and its strategic goals. To enhance mutual understanding about this issue, Washington hopes to convince Beijing to send more senior PLA officers to the US for regular dialogue.
The two sides have had a military maritime consultative agreement since 1997 but US officials have complained that it has failed to help prevent incidents. “We would hope to reinvigorate those discussions,” the defence official said.
