China Wednesday called for talks with Taiwan on military issues “in due course”, as the self-ruled island and former foe announced it was developing an unmanned surveillance aircraft.

“We advocate that both sides get in touch and exchange views on military issues, including military deployment, in due course and in an appropriate manner,” said Yang Yi, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.

He told reporters that China wanted to “probe establishing a cross-Strait military security mutual trust mechanism to help stabilise the situation in the Taiwan Strait and ease military security concerns.”

Taiwan said Tuesday it had started research on drones, which are remotely piloted and perform reconnaissance and attack missions, indicating that its arms race with China had not ended despite improving ties.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after a civil war but Beijing still considers the self-ruled island part of its territory awaiting reunification.

Ties between the two have improved markedly since Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou came into power in 2008, but China still refuses to renounce the possibility of using force should the island declare independence.

Ma stressed over the weekend that the island would keep buying arms from the United States as it cannot rely solely on improving relations with China to ensure its security.

US arms sales to Taiwan led to the suspension of Chinese-US military exchanges for months.

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie held fence-mending talks in Vietnam Tuesday.