(HorizonPost.com) – National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan this weekend said President Biden is “determined” to re-establish direct military-to-military communications with China and hopes to lay the groundwork for that when he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, Reuters reported.
While appearing on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, just days before the president is scheduled to meet with President Xi in San Francisco, Sullivan said the president believes that it is in America’s national security interest to re-establish the lines of communication, particularly as a way to ensure that there are no “mistakes,” “miscalculations,” or “miscommunications” between the two country’s militaries.
Sullivan said the lines of communication between the two militaries should include every level from the senior leadership down to the operational level both “on the water and in the air in the Indo-Pacific.”
The president is scheduled to meet with President Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Wednesday, marking only the second in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office.
While appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sullivan told host Dana Bash that re-establishing the lines of communication that China cut off is a “top priority” for President Biden as a way to ensure that relations between the US and China do not “tip over into conflict.”
Sullivan said the president hopes to “advance the ball” on re-establishing those military ties during Wednesday’s meeting but offered no further details.
The president is expected to discuss several global issues with Xi during their meeting on Wednesday, including the war in Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea’s relationship with Russia, artificial intelligence, fentanyl production, and fair trade, according to a senior White House official.
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