A planned virtual meeting between US and Chinese military delegations fell through because of the United States' desire to unilaterally push through items on the agenda, Colonel Liu Wensheng, a naval representative for the Chinese armed forces, said on Thursday
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th December, 2020) A planned virtual meeting between US and Chinese military delegations fell through because of the United States' desire to unilaterally push through items on the agenda, Colonel Liu Wensheng, a naval representative for the Chinese armed forces, said on Thursday.
The chief of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Philip Davidson, said on Wednesday that Chinese military officials had refused to participate in a planned virtual meeting from Monday to Wednesday. At that time, Davidson said that China's refusal to participate illustrated Beijing's disregard for agreements, although Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Thursday said that the US should take full responsibility for the cancellation of the talks.
"The US statements are an absolute distortion of the facts and misleading. The reason for the meeting falling through is that the US side does not respect the bilateral consensus. The responsibility lies entirely with the US side," Liu said in a statement.
According to the naval representative, both sides were expected to hold a videoconference within the framework of the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA). Chinese officials submitted their proposals for the agenda on November 18, Liu stated, adding that their US counterparts were unwilling to discuss items raised by Beijing and pushed for the "arbitrary shortening" of the talks.
Military officials from both China and the United States have met regularly since 1998 under the terms of the MMCA, which was established to prevent accidents while the maritime forces from both countries operate near one another.
The canceled meeting was scheduled to be held virtually given the ongoing coronavirus disease pandemic.
