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US says military hotline with China likely within weeks
2008-02-29
The United States and China aim to set up a telephone hotline between their militaries within a month following an agreement signed Friday, the US defence department said. The deal was signed in Shanghai alongside another one giving the United States access to China's military archives to search for missing servicemen from the Korean War and other conflicts, the official said. "We welcome this important step forward in enhancing communication between our militaries," the US defence department said in a statement. "The (hotline) will be a useful tool to make contact quickly, clarify issues, and avoid miscalculations." It added that the agreement allowed the two sides to move forward on installing the equipment over the next few weeks, meaning the hotline would probably become operational within a month. A US defence department official told AFP the signing ceremonies took place at noon. The official could not comment further, but more details were expected at a briefing in Shanghai on Saturday. The military hotline was first floated by the United States in 2003, and US President George W. Bush reached agreement on the link when meeting his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao at a regional forum in Sydney in September. The two nations discussed the issue further in November last year when US Defence Secretary Robert Gates visited Beijing. In November, the two sides agreed to expand educational exchanges and military cooperation through a number of other methods, including joint naval exercises. The line will be China's first direct military telephone link with another country. US and Chinese heads of state have been able to communicate over a similar hotline since the late 1990s. In 2004, a direct telephone link was set up between the US secretary of state and the Chinese foreign minister. In the other agreement on Friday, US officials will be allowed access to some of China's military archives to help in the search for thousands of servicemen who went missing in conflicts since World War II. The United States believes that those records could help determine the fate of American servicemen who died in captivity, said Charles Ray, deputy assistant secretary of defence for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs. The Korean War is especially important because China entered the conflict on North Korea's side in 1950 and ran many POW camps. "The two militaries, through friendly consultation, have reached the following arrangement to develop military archives cooperation to search for information relating to US military personnel missing in action before, during, and after the Korean War," he said. More than 33,000 US troops were killed during the Korean War while about 8,100 are still listed as missing in action.
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