US, China to resume military-to-military dialogue in 'coming months'

U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs met for more than an hour on the sidelines of a major security forum in Singapore on Friday, where disputes over Taiwan and other flashpoint issues are expected to dominate the three-day event.

The rare direct talks between the United States' Lloyd Austin and China's Dong Jun finished shortly after 2:00 pm (0600 GMT), AFP reporters said, in the first substantive face-to-face meeting between the two countries' defence chiefs in 18 months.

The two defense chiefs agreed that military-to-military communications were vital, a China defense spokesman said, hailing the result of the rare direct talks as "good".

The United States and China will resume military-to-military communications "in the coming months", Austin said.