The US is seeking to reopen military channels with China after the Trump-Xi meeting

• Hegseth meets Dong on the sidelines of the Malaysia summit.
• Trump touts improved ties, draft tariff deal
• Beijing urges policy-level dialogue to build confidence.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday that during talks with his Chinese counterpart, the two sides agreed to restart military-to-military relations for “deconfliction and de-escalation”.

Hegseth met with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun on the sidelines of a regional summit in Malaysia, a day after leaders Xi Jinping and Donald Trump held talks in South Korea.

“I just spoke with President Trump and we agree – the relationship between the United States and China has never been better,” Hegseth said in a post on X, adding that he had spoken with Dong again after the face-to-face meeting.

“The Admiral and I agree that peace, stability and good relations are the best path for our two great and powerful countries,” he said, touting a path of “strength, mutual respect and positive relations.”

The Pentagon chief said he and Dong “also agreed that we should establish military channels for de-confliction and de-escalation of any problems that arise.”

Such channels have been around for years but have fallen out of use from time to time.

“We have more meetings on this soon,” Hegseth said without elaborating.

There was no immediate comment from Beijing.

According to China’s Defense Ministry at their meeting in Malaysia, Dong had told Hegseth that the countries should “strengthen policy-level dialogue to enhance trust and dispel uncertainty” and build a bilateral military relationship “characterized by equality, respect, peaceful coexistence and stable positive momentum.”

Last week, Trump said he agreed to cut tariffs on China to 47 percent in exchange for Beijing resuming purchases of U.S. soybeans, keeping rare earth exports flowing and cracking down on the illegal fentanyl trade.

His comments came after face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of Trump’s whirlwind trip to Asia, in which he also discussed trade innovations with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.