US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday, expressing his appreciation for the visit and for the chance to move toward a new model of military-to-military relations, according to a Pentagon official.
Brent Colburn, the US defense secretary's assistant for public affairs, in a statement summarizing the meeting said Hagel also thanked President Xi for the deep and candid conversations he has had with China's leadership.
"The two leaders affirmed the need for continued dialogue between the two nations, building off of the foundation laid out in earlier conversations between Presidents Obama and Xi," Colburn said.
Hagel also discussed with Xi the continuing cooperation by China and the United States with the international community to achieve a complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula in the face of the growing threat posed by North Korean nuclear and missile developments, the official added.
Hagel arrived in China from Japan on a three-day tour on Monday. China is Hagel's third stop after multi-day meetings in Hawaii and Japan on his fourth trip to the Asia-Pacific region since becoming defense secretary. From China, Hagel will head to Mongolia to meet with government and military leaders there before starting for home on April 10.
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