SINGAPORE (AFP) – The United States (US) and Chinese defence chiefs are set to hold rare direct talks in Singapore this weekend, offering hopes of further military dialogue aimed at preventing flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control.
The expected meeting between the US’ Lloyd Austin and China’s Dong Jun at the Shangri-La Dialogue will be the first substantive face-to-face talks between their countries’ defence chiefs in 18 months.
The security forum is an annual gathering of defence chiefs from around the world that has in recent years become a barometer of US-China relations.
Beijing effectively suspended military talks with the US in late 2022 and the two sides agreed after a summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden in November last year to restart high-level military talks.
Austin and Dong then talked over the phone in April.
Their meeting in Singapore – announced by the Pentagon last week – would be the most substantial encounter on defence since the presidential summit.
“The hope here is for the (Dong-Austin) meeting to be the beginnings of cautious rapprochement to re-establish military-to-military open lines of communication,” Senior international affairs analyst with consultancy Solaris Strategies Singapore Mustafa Izzuddin told AFP.
Biden and Xi agreed at their summit to set up a communications channel between the US Indo-Pacific Command chief and China’s commanders responsible for military operations in the region.
A US official recently highlighted the importance of direct talks between those commanders.
Izzuddin described such dialogue as “essential”.
“It’s exceptionally important because when we talk about what is happening in the region, it’s essentially about defence and security,” he said.
Austin and Dong will also give speeches this weekend at the Shangri-La Dialogue in which they are expected to touch on a range of their nations’ pressure points.
The US is increasingly worried about China’s fast-developing military capabilities.
China already has the largest navy in the world and this month carried out a sea test of its third and biggest aircraft carrier.
In 2021, China reportedly stunned US defence officials with a globe-circling hypersonic test flight.
