Military-to-military communications

Dunford Initiates Call With Russian Counterpart

The Pentagon's top military official initiated a phone call with his Russian counterpart Monday, the highest military-to-military communication between the two nations since August 2014.

Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff, had a "short" call that discussed a "range of issues," according to Capt. Gregory Hicks, spokesman for the Joint Chiefs.

"The chairman, he's new to the job obviously and he wanted to establish a line of communication with his counterpart," Hicks said. The two agreed to have follow-up conversations in the future, Hicks added, noting that "they want to have that line open, and now it is."