US Defence Secretary meets with Chinese counterpart at Singapore Shangri-La Dialogue

SINGAPORE: United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met with China’s Defence Minister Dong Jun on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday, in their first in-person dialogue in nearly 18 months and follows a video call between the two last month.

Nikkei Asia citing an US official confirmed that the meeting began today between Austin and his Chinese counterpart.

The meeting comes amidst a fraught regional backdrop as China only days ago had conducted a large-scale, two-day military drill encircling Taiwan and Beijing’s efforts to aggressively assert disputed territorial claims in the East and South China Seas, while decrying Washington’s efforts to strengthen security ties with key allies like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, CNN reported.

According to CNN, US officials said ahead of the meeting that Austin is expected to raise concerns with Dong about China’s support for Russia.

The two leaders are meeting for the first time since 2022 and were expected to discuss contentious issues such as Taiwan and the South China Sea, as well as other topics.

“This is an opportunity for the two sides to exchange well-established talking points,” said Drew Thompson, a visiting senior research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore who formerly served as a Pentagon official dealing with the Chinese military was cited as saying by the New York Times.

In his conversation with Admiral Dong via video call in April this year Austin "reiterated that the United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate - safely and responsibly - wherever international law allows,” the Pentagon had said at that time.

Admiral Dong’s predecessor, Gen. Li Shangfu, who was under US sanctions refused to hold talks with Austin in Singapore in 2023.

Austin last held talks with his Chinese counterpart when he spoke with the then defence minister of China Wei Fenghe in Cambodia in November 2022. Dong was appointed China's Defence minister in December. China then named General Li Shangfu as its defence minister.

In 2018, the US sanctioned Li under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) when he headed the Equipment Development Department of the Chinese military. The sanctions were related to China's purchase of ten SU-35 combat aircrafts in 2017 and S-400 surface-to-air missile system-related equipment in 2018, according to the State Department, according to a Voice of America report.

US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last year in November near San Francisco to reopen direct military-to-military talks at several levels.

In January this year, senior US and Chinese defence officials gathered for two days at the Pentagon to discuss defence relations between the two countries. Earlier in April, US and Chinese officials held talks aimed at ensuring professional and safe interactions between the two countries' air and naval forces.

High-level military communication channels had been closed since Beijing shut them down to protest the 2022 visit to Taiwan by the then-US. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

China has laid claim on the South China sea while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam claim the areas around their coasts. An international court ruled in 2016 that China's nine-dash line, on which Beijing bases its claim, was without merit.

Representatives from over 40 countries, including Ukraine, along with around 350 journalists, are expected to attend the annual Shangri-la conference that began today and will go on till Sunday, organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).