Months of tense diplomatic relations between Australia and China showed signs of easing on Thursday, with senior military leaders from both holding brief strategic talks in Australia's capital, Reuters reported. General Chen Bingde, Chief of General Staff for the three-million-strong Peoples Liberation Army, met Australian counterpart Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston and Defence Minister John Faulkner for closed-door discussions. The talks saw "progress in expanding defence and security activities", Faulkner said afterwards in a briefly worded statement, bringing "more opportunities both for open communication and to promote cooperation". Relations between Australia and China were soured by the arrest in China of an Australian mining executive for commercial espionage and by the granting of an Australian visa to an exiled ethnic Uighur leader, which infuriated Beijing. -- SPA
