U.S., Chinese officials to meet on Guam
for discussions on maritime safety
By Donovan Brooks, Guam
bureau chief
FINEGAYAN — U.S. and Chinese military officials will meet on Guam next month to
discuss maritime safety — the first such meeting since a U.S. Navy surveillance plane
was forced to make an emergency landing on China’s Hainan island.
The two sides will meet Sept. 13-14 to discuss safe flight and navigation in
international airspace and waters and in exclusive economic zones, U.S. Pacific Command
spokesman Marine Maj. Sean Gibson said Thursday.
The purpose of the meeting is to help the two countries get past the Hainan island
incident, Gibson said. A U.S. Navy EP-3E surveillance plane flying out of Kadena Air Base,
Japan, made an emergency landing on the island April 1 after colliding with a Chinese F-8
jet.
China said the Navy plane entered its international airspace without permission. But
the Pentagon said international law doesn’t recognize China’s claim of a
200-mile exclusive economic zone.
The EP-3’s 24-member crew was held on the island for nearly two weeks before being
returned to its home base in Whidbey Island, Wash. The plane, however, remained on the
island until July, when it was dismantled and flown to the States on a Russian cargo
plane.
China sent the United States a $1 million bill to cover the costs of the plane’s
stay on Chinese soil for three months. The United States agreed to pay $34,000.
September’s meeting will be the first special meeting under a consulting agreement
signed between the two countries in 1998. The agreement is a mechanism to strengthen
military maritime safety, Gibson said.
Navy Rear Adm. Steven Smith, the head of PACOM’s Strategic Planning and Policy
Directorate, will lead the U.S. delegation. The leader of the Chinese delegation has not
been named, Gibson said. Surveillance flights by U.S. aircraft to gather electronic
signals along China’s coast had routinely been conducted before the collision, but
were suspended after China demanded they stop. They were resumed in May.
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