U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held face-to-face talks for the first time with his Chinese counterpart in Singapore with both sides agreeing to maintain lines of dialogue in the future.
The two met on the fringes of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe discussed global and regional security issues and the bilateral defense relationship between the United States and China. They exchanged views on North Korea, the Russia-Ukraine war as well as Taiwan.
The meeting lasted 55 minutes, substantially longer than originally scheduled. The two agreed to engage more proactively in crisis communications and crisis management mechanisms.
Austin reiterated to Wei that there is no change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan which is the commitment to our ‘One China’ policy and the United States does not support any unilateral changes to the status quo, and does not support Taiwan’s independence.
However, Austin told Wei that the United States will continue to provide arms with defensive character to Taiwan as called for under the Taiwan Relations Act. He also stressed that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is “of grave concern” to the United States and that U.S. officials are concerned “that the PLA may be attempting to change the status quo through its operational behavior.”
China urged Washington not to interfere in China’s internal affairs or harm its interests. “Taiwan belongs to China and the one-China principle is the political foundation for China-U.S. relations”, Wei said, adding that attempts at “using Taiwan to contain China” are doomed to fail.
China’s defense minister condemned the latest $120 million U.S. arms package for Taiwan. Wei Fenghe said the move “seriously harms China’s sovereignty and security interests”, and that China firmly opposes and strongly condemns it. The Chinese government and military will resolutely crush any “Taiwan independence” attempt and resolutely safeguard national reunification, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The talks “went smoothly” but no evidence of any breakthrough on long-running security disputes was reported.
