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China’s military
ChinaMilitary

Chinese, US defence chiefs are in Singapore for Shangri-La Dialogue, but will bilateral talks happen?

  • China’s General Li Shangfu and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin have kicked off separate meetings to vie for support from Asia-Pacific nations
  • But prospects for bilateral talks appear slim, after the US said China declined a proposal to meet and PLA brass confirms sanctions on Li as a reason

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Chinese Defence Minister General Li Shangfu and US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin shake hands during the opening dinner for the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday. Photo: Weibo
Jack Lauin SingaporeandMinnie Chanin Singapore
The defence ministers of China and the United States have kicked off separate efforts to vie for support from Asia-Pacific nations at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, but chances of a much-needed meeting between the two remain slim.
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Chinese defence chief General Li Shangfu and US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin shook hands briefly at a welcome dinner on Friday, the short exchange a significant footnote to a day of discussions with regional counterparts.

Li earlier led People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers for closed-door bilateral meetings with officials from Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Cambodia.

The meetings came as the coastguards of the US, Japan and the Philippines carried out joint maritime exercises in the South China Sea. The week-long drill launched on Thursday is their first such trilateral exercise amid growing concerns about China’s maritime expansion in the region.

The joint exercises in waters off the Philippine province of Bataan will include counter-piracy simulations, and possibly an interception exercise involving a vessel carrying weapons of mass destruction, Philippine coastguard spokesman Armand Balilo said earlier this week.

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Balilo said Japan and the US had approached his country in February, the same month that Enrique Manalo, the Philippine foreign minister, confirmed regular cases of “harassment” in the contested South China Sea.

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