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BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s defense ministry said on Thursday that last week’s meeting between Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Singapore was constructive.

Ministry spokesman Wu Qian made the comment at a regular monthly news briefing, adding that Mattis had again invited Wei to visit the United States.

When the pair met last week on the sidelines of a regional security conference in Singapore, Mattis told Wei that the world’s two largest economies needed to deepen high-level ties in order to navigate tension and rein in the risk of inadvertent conflict.