4th China-ROK Defense Strategic Dialogue held

Wang Guanzhong, deputy chief of general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), and Baek Seung-joo, deputy defense minister of the Republic of Korea (ROK), co-chaired the 4th China-ROK Defense Strategic Dialogue in Beijing on the afternoon of July 23, 2014.

Wang Guanzhong said that the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries and the two militaries in various fields have gained remarkable achievements.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful visit to the ROK in early July, he and President Park Geun-hye reached a number of important consensuses, charting the course for the development of the bilateral relations.

Baek Seung-joo said that the ROK attaches great importance to developing relations with China, and spoke highly of the positive results achieved during President Xi Jinping's visit to the ROK.

Baek Seung-joo stressed that both sides agreed to earnestly implement the consensuses reached by the two heads of the states, conduct multi-layer exchanges including high-level mutual visits, strategic dialogue and exchanges between young officers, deepen pragmatic cooperation in military education and training and other fields, increase mutual understanding and mutual trust, push forward the in-depth development of military-to-military relations, and continuously enrich the contents of strategic cooperative partnership between the two nations.

Wang Guanzhong introduced the efforts made by China and the U.S. and their militaries on building a new type of bilateral relations and military-to-military relations, and expounded China's view on the "right-wing" political tide of the Shinzo Abe administration and China's basic stance on issues of the Korean Peninsula, the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea.

Wang vowed to continue strengthening communication and coordination with the ROK and other neighboring countries in the endeavor to jointly safeguard regional peace, stability and prosperity, including that for the Korean Peninsula.

Baek Seung-joo introduced ROK's standpoint on the regional security status and the efforts made by the ROK government to safeguard regional peace and stability.

He thanked China for its positive role in addressing the Korean Peninsula issue, expressed concerns over Japanese government's insistence on the wrong and backward conception of history and its massive amendment of the defense policy, and hoped to intensify regional security cooperation with China.

After the meeting, the two sides signed the memorandum of understanding on opening direct phone lines between the ministries of defense of the two countries.