The U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel’s visit, at the invitation of Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Chang Wanquan, to Beijing comes in the middle of a 10-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region, during which he visited Japan and will travel to Mongolia later this week. The trip began in Hawaii with the first meeting for defense ministers of the 10 member countries of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations to be held in the United States.

“One focus of our discussion today (April 8) was how we develop a new model of military-to-military relations,” Hagel said about his meeting with Chang.