U.S. and Chinese defense officials sat down Tuesday for their first high-level bilateral military talks in 18 months amid rising tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. No immediate details were available about the two-day talks between delegations headed by U.S. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy and People's Liberation Army deputy chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian. Reporters were ushered from the meeting room in Beijing's imposing Defense Ministry after a brief photo opportunity, according to a report of the Associated Press. The discussions are formally known as the U.S.-China Defense Consultative Talks. At a separate briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said North Korea would be on the talks' agenda, in addition to Taiwan and international security issues. «I believe under the current circumstances, China and U.S. discussions of the situation on the Korean peninsula are a natural thing,» Qin said at a regularly scheduled news conference.
