WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (KUNA) -- US and Chinese defense officials convened on October 28-29 the first "Crisis Communications Working Group" via video teleconference to discuss "concepts of crisis communications, crisis prevention, and crisis management," the Pentagon announced Thursday.
The Pentagon said in a statement that the meeting "provided an opportunity to build mutual understanding between the US military and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on principles to prevent and manage crisis and reduce risk to forces".
It added that the two sides agreed "on the importance of establishing mechanisms for timely communication during a crisis, as well as the need to maintain regular communication channels to prevent crisis and conduct post-crisis assessment".
The statement indicated that the US delegation "as host" included representatives from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the US Indo-Pacific Command, whereas the Chinese delegation included representatives of the Central Military Commission's (CMC) Office for International Military Cooperation, the CMC Joint Staff Department and the PLA Southern Theater Command. (end) si.mt