Preparations for China-U.S. military maritime consultative agreement meeting going smoothly: spokesperson

BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The preparations for a China-U.S. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting are well underway, and relevant information will be released in due course, a Chinese military spokesperson said on Thursday.

The two sides are also in coordination on communication and exchanges in other areas, Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, told a regular press conference.

This year the Chinese and U.S. militaries have made concerted efforts to steadily resume dialogues and consultations on the basis of equality and respect, in a bid to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state in San Francisco, Wu noted.

The 17th China-U.S. Defense Policy Coordination Talks was held in Washington D.C. from Jan. 8 to Jan. 9, Wu said, adding that from Jan. 5 to Jan. 19, the Chinese side assisted the U.S. side in visiting Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hunan Province to conduct site surveys in search of the remains of missing U.S. military personnel in China during WWII.

Noting that this year marks the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, Wu expressed the hope that the U.S. side will earnestly respect China's core interests and work with the Chinese side towards the same direction to jointly promote the sound, stable and sustainable development of military-to-military relations.