The Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), the world's largest international naval exercise, kicked off Thursday. The US-led biennial military drill this year brought 23 nations, 47 ships, six submarines, more than 200 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel to the area around Hawaii.

China has sent four warships to participate in the exercise, becoming the second biggest contingent following the US.

We commend Washington's invitation, which demonstrated its willingness to forge a new type of military relations with Beijing. We also expect the US to entirely discard the Cold War mentality and stop clinging to its outmoded way of using a stick plus carrot approach to deter other nations.

China's increasing national strength, rising military budget and upgraded military equipment have contributed to its combat capacity, which has created anxiety in Washington. The US is quite concerned with China's naval and air forces, which have progressed with sustained development in recent years.

In particular, the US has been focused on the aircraft carrier fleet of the Chinese navy, which includes medium and large surface combatants equipped with phased array radar, Air Independent Propulsion and other new forms of weaponry. Therefore, Washington is eager to get in touch with China to learn about its actual military capability.

The US army thought that the RIMPAC exercise would be a wonderful opportunity to observe the guided missile destroyer, missile frigate, multi-purpose supply ship and hospital ship China has deployed. Furthermore, the participants involved can even learn from each other about the performance of ships, equipment, methods of training and quality of personnel.

Obviously there will be disputes and controversies between China and the US, but both of them are hoping to establish effective mechanisms to manage crises as well as a corresponding coordinating program on many issues. The US army has recognized during these years that the repeated twists and turns in Sino-US military ties have largely dampened the normal development of their bilateral relations.

However, Washington's core strategic objective is to impede China from further developing its comprehensive power, in a bid to retain the competitive edge. The US' intentions will never change, but it is reluctant to see large-scale warfare or grave conflicts with China.

To this end, the US military has grasped the opportunity of the largest maritime exercise to enhance its communication and cooperation with Chinese maritime forces and promote mutual trust and understanding. In this way it can develop an effective management mechanism and avoid major misinterpretation and misjudgment.

In actuality, Washington has realized through maritime practices in these years that beefing up strategic cooperation with its allies or forging military alliances with other countries will only help with part of its strategic purpose, but a myriad of affairs in the Pacific Ocean can hardly be fully tackled without China's participation.

International conundrums ranging from the North Korean nuclear issue, the security of sea lanes, endeavors against terrorists and pirates, rescue and relief efforts and humanitarian aid all call for Beijing's active involvement.

In the future, Washington will continue to implement the "engaging and containing" strategy, a product from the Cold War era which may evolve into an "engaging plus regulating" policy when the time is ripe.

We need to stay sober-minded about this.

The author is chief expert at the Ocean Research Center of the Sanlue Research Institute. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn