China and the United States both have termed last week's summit between presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama at Sunnylands, California, as a great success. Among the wide range of issues discussed by the two leaders at the two-day informal meeting was Sino-US military relationship.

At his press briefing on June 7, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said: "Both sides stressed the importance of improving and developing bilateral military relations and their desire to push forward the construction of a new pattern of China-US military relations."

US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, on the other hand, said Sino-US military-to-military ties lagged behind bilateral political and economic relations, and stressed the need to increase and deepen military engagements.