Xiong Guangkai, deputy chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), left Beijing on January 22 morning for the United States to attend the third defensive consultations between defense departments of the two countries.

This will be the first official contact between high-ranking officers of the two countries since the US-led NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade last May, marking the restoration of high-level exchanges between the two armed forces.

During the trip, both sides are expected to exchange views on relations between the two countries and the two armed forces as well as other issues of common interest.

The heads of state of China and the US decided to establish a regular consultation mechanism in 1997, when Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited the US The two defense authorities held two consultations in 1997 and 1998, respectively.

The third Sino-US defense consultation was supposed to be held in the second half of 1999. The Chinese government, however, decided to postpone the high-level military exchanges between the two countries, because of the embassy bombing on May 8, 1999.

Sino-US relations have improved since President Jiang and U.S. President Bill Clinton had a successful meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, last September. The negotiations on China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) ended in success, and the two countries reached an agreement on the compensation of the casualties and property losses during the embassy bombing. (Xinhua)