Russian ministry of defense officials met with Pentagon officials via video conference Wednesday to discuss the US-Russia memorandum of understanding on flight safety over Syria, according to a statement by Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. Both sides are “committed to adhering to the MOU on flight safety as long as each side is operating in Syria,” according to the press release, which also states the conversation was “constructive.” US and Russian defense officials have previously discussed flight safety in Syrian airspace, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said in March that the US must keep communication lines open with Russia even at the “worst of times.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…