The US says dialogue with China is “essential” to reduce the risk of conflict

The United States proposed a formal meeting between Austin and his Chinese counterpart, Li Changfu, at the city-state Shangri-La Dialogue Defense Forum, but Beijing declined the invitation.

The two leaders shook hands the night before and spoke briefly during the inaugural dinner of this summit, but the meeting went no further.

Tensions between the two powers escalated last year over issues such as Taiwan or the alleged Chinese spy balloon dropped on American soil.

“The United States believes that opening lines of communication with the People’s Republic of China is essential, particularly between our defense and military leaders,” Austin said in the Shangri-La Dialogue.

“The more we talk, the more we can avoid misunderstandings and miscalculations that could lead to crisis or conflict,” the Pentagon leader added.

The Chinese delegation responded immediately through a spokesman for the country’s Ministry of Defense, Colonel Tang Hefei, who stated that the Pentagon chief “made several false accusations” during his speech.

“We are against that,” Tang told reporters in Singapore.

Another member of the Chinese delegation, Col. Zhao Xiaozhu, said Beijing also considers maintaining lines of communication essential, but added that “the problem is for the United States to stop provoking China’s security.”

He also noted that one of the “preconditions for real dialogue” is for Washington to lift the sanctions imposed on Li Shangfu in 2018 for his purchase of weapons from Russia.

Shared information

According to the United States, these sanctions do not prevent Austin from officially negotiating with it.

The Pentagon chief said he was “very concerned that (China) does not want to engage more seriously in better crisis management mechanisms between the two militaries.”

He also criticized Beijing for “an alarming number of serious interceptions of aircraft from the United States and allied countries that were flying lawfully in international airspace”.

One such incident occurred last week when, according to the US military, a Chinese fighter made an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” near a US reconnaissance aircraft operating in the South China Sea.

The Asian country’s military said the American plane had “entered” a military training area.

As part of the forum, the United States, Japan and South Korea announced Saturday that they will exchange information about North Korean missile launches before the end of the year, according to a statement released after a meeting of their defense ministers.

The three parties acknowledged the “trilateral efforts to activate the real-time data sharing mechanism” in order to “improve each country’s ability to detect and evaluate missiles launched by North Korea,” according to the text.

The announcement follows North Korea’s failed attempt to launch a spy satellite on Wednesday, which plunged into the sea after a missile problem.