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Gates prods China to restore military ties

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates pushed for reopening military-to-military relations with China during a conference in Vietnam, he said Monday. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates pushed for reopening military-to-military relations with China during a conference in Vietnam, he said Monday. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg | License Photo

HANOI, Vietnam, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates pushed for reopening military-to-military relations with China during a conference in Vietnam, he said Monday.

During a meeting of Asian defense ministers, Gates met privately with Gen. Liang Guanglie of China. Gates told The New York Times he explained to his counterpart that arms sales to Taiwan, which led China to freeze military ties, were a decision by the U.S. political leadership, not the Pentagon or the armed forces.

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"It is fundamentally a political decision," Gates said. "Why the military relationship should be held hostage to what is essentially a political decision seems to me curious. And I believe it should not be."

U.S.-Chinese military relations lag far behind diplomatic and economic ones. China halted exchanges between the armed forces earlier this year in retaliation after the United States decided to sell $6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan.

Liang, as expected, officially invited Gates to visit Beijing, which he plans to do next year.

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