SINGAPORE: The US and Chinese defence chiefs were in Singapore on Friday for a major security forum where they are set to hold rare direct talks, with Taiwan and other flashpoint disputes expected to dominate the three-day event.
The meeting between the United States’ Lloyd Austin and China’s Dong Jun on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue will be the first substantive face-to-face talks between the two countries’ defence chiefs in 18 months.Defence chiefs and officials from around the world are attending the annual forum that has in recent years become a barometer of US-China relations.
Beijing is also furious over Washington’s deepening defence ties in the Asia-Pacific, particularly with the Philippines, and its regular deployment of warships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.President Joe Biden’s administration and China have been stepping up communication to ease friction between the nuclear-armed rivals, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken visiting Beijing and Shanghai last month.
That includes a communications channel between the US Indo-Pacific Command chief and Chinese commanders responsible for military operations near Taiwan, Japan and in the South China Sea. The highly anticipated meeting between Austin and Dong will follow a phone call between the pair in April, and offer hopes of further military talks to cool tensions.
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