Agreement sign of shared resolve to reduce risks

The agreement signed in Beijing on Tuesday to improve communication, relations and exchanges between the militaries of China and the United States is a significant effort to manage the differences between them and avoid miscalculations.

Since Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who signed the agreement with his Chinese counterpart Fang Fenghui, said that both militaries have many issues on which they don't necessarily share the same perspective, such an agreement is clearly necessary.

While it is natural for China and the US to have differences in many areas, there is no reason their differences should stand in the way of efforts to develop better bilateral ties unless one side keeps pushing the envelope to find the other's bottom line, and thus risk crossing it.