Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that calls he made late in the Trump administration to his Chinese military counterpart were “perfectly within the duties and responsibilities” of his job and that he would explain his actions in greater detail during an upcoming appearance before Congress.

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       Milley, who has come under fire after a new book revealed the conservations aimed at averting armed conflict, described the calls as “routine” and said they were done “to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.”

       “I think it’s best that I reserve my comments on the record until I do that in front of the lawmakers who have the lawful responsibility to oversee the U.S. military,” Milley said, according to the Associated Press. “I’ll go into any level of detail Congress wants to go into in a couple of weeks.”

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       The AP reported that Milley, the Pentagon’s top uniformed officer, made his comments to reporters traveling with him to Europe. Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to testify Sept. 28 before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

       Biden comes to Milley’s defense after revelation top general, fearing Trump, conferred with China to avert war

       According to the book from Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa, Milley spoke with Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army twice: once in late October and again in early January, after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his election defeat.

       The domestic upheaval had shaken the government in Beijing, where leaders, according to the book’s authors, worried that Trump appeared to be acting so erratically that he might order an attack on China, triggering a war.

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       In their calls, Milley sought to reassure Li that things in the United States were “100 percent steady,” according to the book, even if “democracy can be sloppy sometimes.” But he later instructed Pentagon officials that he had to be involved in any discussions about launching nuclear weapons, even though it is the president who would give such an order, the authors wrote.

       Biden on Wednesday threw his full support behind Milley, saying he has “great confidence” in him following calls from former president Donald Trump and his Republican allies on Capitol Hill for the Milley’s removal.

       Republican critics of Milley have argued that he undercut his commander in chief and violated the principle of civilian control over the military. Trump, in denying he had ever contemplated attacking China, called the general’s actions “treason.”

       Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.