The U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs are in Singapore on Friday where they are expected to hold rare direct talks at an annual security forum with Taiwan and other regional friction points at the heart of the discussions.
The meeting between US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue will mark the first exchange between the defense ministers of the two powers in almost 18 months.
MM. Dong and Austin will meet at 1:00 p.m. local time (05:00 GMT) in the luxury hotel hosting the forum, American officials told AFP on condition of anonymity.
This annual forum, organized from Friday to Sunday, which brings together defense chiefs from around the world, including French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, has in recent years become a barometer of US-Chinese relations.
This meeting comes a week after major military maneuvers led by China, during which Chinese warships and fighter planes surrounded Taiwan, of which Beijing claims sovereignty.
The autonomous island is supported militarily by the United States, which opposes any modification of its status by force, without calling for its independence.
China has accused Taiwan’s new president Lai Ching-te of pushing the island towards “war”, accusing him of being a “dangerous separatist”.
Rivalries in the South China Sea, claimed largely by Beijing, should also feature in the backdrop of this forum.
Beijing takes a very dim view of Washington’s strengthening defense ties in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly with the Philippines, and the regular deployment of warships and combat aircraft in the Taiwan Strait and in South China Sea.
The US president’s administration and China have stepped up communications to ease friction between nuclear-armed rivals, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken visiting Beijing and Shanghai last month.
One of the priorities was the resumption of dialogue between military personnel.
Beijing suspended military discussions with Washington at the end of 2022 in response to the visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the House of Representatives.
But the two powers agreed after a summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in November last year to resume military talks.
– Friction points –
This includes a communications channel between the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command and Chinese commanders responsible for military operations near Taiwan, Japan and in the South China Sea.
Before the Chinese and US presidents agreed to resume military dialogue, Austin warned that incidents risked spiraling out of control, particularly without open lines of communication between US and Chinese forces.
The meeting between MM. Austin and Dong’s first face-to-face meeting has been widely anticipated since their telephone conversation in April and has heralded further military talks to ease tensions.
They will also give speeches this weekend, in which they are expected to address a series of sticking points regarding their countries.
Increasingly concerned about China’s rapid development of military capabilities, Washington has strengthened its alliances and partnerships in the region to counter Beijing’s growing territorial assertions.
In a communication on the social network commune of a free and open region”.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who has sought to deepen defense cooperation with the United States while opposing Chinese actions in waters off the Philippines, is scheduled to deliver the opening speech Friday afternoon. forum.
