Commander in Chief of the People’s Liberation (PLA) Army Navy Adm. Wu Shengli concluded his visit to the United States in a series of discussions with Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert in the Pentagon and a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before departing Sept. 13 for China.
Shengli began his weeklong visit to the U.S. in San Diego, starting with a briefing at U.S. 3rd Fleet Headquarters about the upcoming RIMPAC exercise.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy will be participating in RIMPAC for the first time in 2014. While in San Diego, Greenert and Shengli visited USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), USS Jefferson City (SSN 759) in port, and embarked on USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) at sea. Shengli also visited U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton before traveling to Washington, D.C..
Shengli’s delegation included Senior Capt. Zhang Zhen, the commanding officer of the first aircraft carrier commissioned into the PLA Navy, Liaoning.
“It was great and inspiring to see the two professionals talk about common challenges, aviation, and aircraft carriers,” said Greenert of Zhang Zhen’s meeting with commanding officer of the USS Carl Vinson, Capt. Kent Whalen.
In Washington Adm. Shengli’s visit began with a full honors ceremony at the Washington Navy Yard. The ceremony consisted of a troop review, performance by the U.S. Navy ceremonial guard and band, and formal remarks by Greenert welcoming his counterpart and delegation to the United States. CNO described the weeklong visit as a great opportunity to find common interests and move ahead in military to military cooperation.
Greenert also highlighted the upcoming RIMPAC in 2014 in which the PLA Navy will participate for the first time. “I look forward to continuing our engagements, and I look forward to the success of RIMPAC 2014,” said Greenert. “Now that the Chinese Navy is going to join us we have a full rim of the Pacific for the RIMPAC exercise.
Following the ceremony Greenert and Shengli headed to the Pentagon where both admirals were able to discuss future opportunities for partnership in engagement ranging from Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief efforts to piracy operations.
“We exchanged ideas and experiences regarding piracy operations, humanitarian deployments, academic exchanges and other common areas of interest, where the cooperative efforts between our two navies can evolve and mature,” said Greenert.
“This visit overall has been very successful,” said Shengli. “I am very happy about the importance that the U.S. has attached to this visit.”
The visit of Adm. Wu Shengli to the U.S. was intended to help establish clear paths of communication, encourage transparency and trust, mitigate risks and focus multilateral cooperative efforts to address common security challenges. The visit of Shengli coincided with the Sept. 6, arrival of three ships from the PLA Navy at Pearl Harbor marking their first port visit to the U.S. since 2006. Shengli last visited the U.S. as a guest of previous CNO Adm. Mike Mullen in 2007.
[mappress] Press Release, September 17, 2013