CANBERRA,January 14 (ChinaMil) -- China and Australia held their 16th Strategic Defense Consultation in Canberra, capital of Australia, on the afternoon of January 13, 2014.

The consultation was co-chaired by Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), and Mark Binskin, deputy chief of the Defense Force of Australia and Michael Shoebridge, deputy secretary of the Australian Department of Defense.

In October of 2013, Wang Guanzhong said, the Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Australian Prime Minister Abbott held talks at the sideline of the 21st informal economic leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and reached consensus that the both sides would continue to strengthen "four bonds" in bilateral ties, that is, mutual trust, economy and trade, people-to-people exchanges and security, so as to push forward the continuous development of the strategic partnership between China and Australia. Under this background, the relations between the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Defense Force of Australia have reached new achievements and are looking forward new opportunities in the future.

Wang Guanzhong expressed that the Chinese side attaches importance to the development of the military-to-military relations between the two countries and will make joint efforts with Australian side to give a full play to the role of the strategic defense consultation mechanism, deepen the pragmatic cooperation in various fields, so as to inject positive elements into the strategic partnership between China and Australia.

Binskin agreed on the positive comments on the current Sino-Australian military ties made by Wang Guanzhong. He hoped that the two sides should consolidate and expand the mutual-beneficial cooperation under the good circumstance at present for developing relations between the two militaries.

Shoebridge put forward concrete proposals on strengthening cooperation in the fields of high-level exchange of visits, college education, maritime safety as well as joint exercises and trainings between the two militaries

Both sides made positive comments on the important role that the strategic defense consultation mechanism has played in pushing forward the development of the military-to-military relations between China and Australia since its establishment 16 years ago and were willing to make full use of this platform to strengthen the inside-outside plan as a whole and elevate the consultation effectiveness.

The two sides also had a wide and in-depth exchange of views on the relations between the two militaries, regional security situation and currently hot and sensitive issues.

The two sides held consultations focusing on the major communication programs in 2014 and planning for communications between the two militaries in the next five years, and reached important consensus stressing that the two sides should maintain communications at the strategic level, strengthen the maritime security cooperation, expand exchanges in other professional fields, increase personnel exchanges and promote multilateral cooperation.