The United States and China will resume military-to-military communications \u201cin the coming months,\u201d US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said after meeting with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun in Singapore on Friday. Austin and Dong met here on the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue to discuss US-China defense relations, as well as regional and global security issues, according to a readout on the meeting issued by the Pentagon. The meeting marked the first face-to-face meeting between the US and Chinese Defense chiefs in 18 months and was held amidst a fraught regional backdrop.<\/p>\n
China only days ago had conducted a large-scale, two-day military drill encircling Taiwan and Beijing\u2019s efforts to aggressively assert disputed territorial claims in the East and South China Seas, while decrying Washington\u2019s efforts to strengthen security ties with key allies like Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, CNN reported. During his meeting with his Chinese counterpart today, Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication between the United States and China, the Department of Defense Press Secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication between the United States and China, the Department of Defense Press Secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement after the meeting. Austin reaffirmed the announcement by US President Joe Biden with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in November 2023 that both sides will resume telephone conversations between theatre commanders in the coming months. The US Defense Secretary welcomed plans to convene a crisis-communications working group by the end of the year, the US Department of Defense said.<\/p>\n
Austin also expressed concern about the recent proactive Chinese military activity around the Taiwan Strait, and he reiterated that China should not use Taiwan\u2019s political transition \u2014 part of a normal, routine democratic process\u2013 as a pretext for coercive measures. Taiwan held presidential election and the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te this month. The US Defense official underscored that the United States remains committed to its longstanding one China policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three US-China Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances. He also reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.<\/p>\n
Ausitn also made clear that the United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate \u2014 safely and responsibly \u2014 wherever international law allows. He underscored the importance of respect for high seas freedom of navigation guaranteed under international law, especially in the South China Sea. The top US defense official also discussed Russia\u2019s unprovoked war against Ukraine and China\u2019s role in supporting Russia\u2019s defense industrial base. \u201cThe Secretary also expressed concerns about recent provocations from the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK), including its direct contributions to Russia\u2019s ongoing assault on Ukraine,\u201d the statement read.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s meeting follows Austin\u2019s April 16 video teleconference call with his Chinese counterpart. Following the meeting Pentagon said the US officials will continue active discussions with their Chinese counterparts about future engagements between defense and military officials at multiple levels. Defense chiefs and officials from around the world are attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum that began here today and will culminate on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is scheduled to deliver the Shangri-La Dialogue\u2019s keynote speech later today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had delivered the key note speech at the forum in 2018. Previous keynote speakers have included Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United States and China will resume military-to-military communications \u201cin the coming months,\u201d US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":47019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14753,13825,5887,2396,14752,9538,14754,164,165,14755,2764],"class_list":["post-46999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-chinese-defense-chief-dong-jun","tag-defense-cooperation","tag-east-china-sea","tag-military-drills","tag-military-to-military-dialogue","tag-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-austin","tag-shangri-la-dialogue","tag-south-china-sea","tag-taiwan","tag-territorial-disputes","tag-us-china-relations"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}