"Military-to-military exchanges help improve mutual understanding. They are beneficial to the bilateral country-to-country and military-to-military relationship," she said.

"I am looking forward to more military-to-military exchanges," she said.

Zhiqun Zhu, associate professor of political science and international relations at the Bucknell University, said military-to-military exchanges between the two countries are extremely important.

"It's further evidence that both sides are interested in keeping the communication channels open. Such exchange may or may not be able to dispel misunderstandings, but they are helpful in keeping decision-makers engaged in a friendly and frank atmosphere, which will greatly reduce the chance of direct conflict," he said.

Richard Solomon, a senior fellow at the Rand Corp and a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said the military-to-military exchanges are very important for the two countries in understanding each other.

"These exchanges are very important because misunderstanding could be very serious. So that's a positive thing," he said.

In a talk held by the National Committee on US-China Relations earlier this year, all the four former US defense secretaries - Harold Brown, William Perry, William Cohen and Chuck Hagel - endorsed more military-to-military exchanges between China and the US.

The Chinese Taskforce 153 members left Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province on June 15. They were joined in the west Pacific on June 18 by the USS Stockdale and USS William P Lawrence for a "group sail" to Hawaii.

A total of 26 nations, 45 ships, five submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel are participating in RIMPAC 2016 in and around the Hawaiian Islands and Southern California.

chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com