Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, has spoken to China’s defence minister for the first time, after Beijing rebuffed repeated requests for a call to be arranged with his proper counterpart, the top general in the Communist party politburo.

Austin spoke to General Wei Fenghe on Tuesday, the first top-level exchange between the two militaries since President Joe Biden entered office 15 months ago. Austin wrote on Twitter that the call was a “follow-up” to the call Biden held with Chinese president Xi Jinping last month.

Austin has made multiple requests to talk to General Xu Qiliang, vice-chair of the Central Military Commission, who the Pentagon says is his appropriate counterpart given that he is the most senior member of China’s defence establishment after Xi, who is also commander-in-chief.