China will send team to minimise conflict at regional security talks, sources say
With militarisation of artificial islands in South China Sea on agenda, Beijing may try to shape summit as ‘academic exchange’ rather than policy debate
With the US set to raise the issue of China’s militarisation of its man-made islands in the South China Sea at a regional security dialogue in Singapore this weekend, Beijing’s representatives have been carefully chosen to minimise tensions, sources said.
The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, which runs from Friday to Sunday, is an annual security summit for Asia attended by defence ministers and other officials from more than 50 countries, including China, the US, Australia, Japan, India, France, Vietnam and the Philippines. This year’s agenda is expected to be dominated by South China Sea disputes and the North Korean nuclear crisis.
En route to the city state, US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis said America would continue to maintain a “steady drumbeat” of naval operations around the disputed waters, adding that “only one country” seemed bothered by the vessels’ routine activities.
“We are going out of our way to cooperate with Pacific nations, that’s the way we do business in the world,” he said. “But we are also going to confront what we believe is out of step with international law, out of step with international tribunals that have spoken on the issue.”
Mattis is set to deliver a speech on Saturday titled “US leadership and the challenges of Indo-Pacific security”, which makes reference to China’s increasing maritime competition with powers such as the US and India.
