“I WILL ANSWER THE PHONE”
The Shangri-La Dialogue, attended by defence officers from all over the world, has change into a barometer of US-China relations lately.
This yr’s version comes every week after China held army drills round self-ruled Taiwan and warned of struggle over the US-backed island following the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing has described as a “harmful separatist”.
Taiwan is likely one of the thorniest disputes in US-China relations.
Austin met together with his Chinese language counterpart Dong Jun on Friday for the primary substantive face-to-face talks between the 2 international locations’ defence chiefs in 18 months.
China scrapped army communications with the US in 2022 in response to then-US Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s go to to Taiwan.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have been additional stoked by points together with an alleged Chinese language spy balloon that was shot down over US airspace, a gathering between Taiwan’s then-president Tsai Ing-wen and Pelosi’s successor Kevin McCarthy, and American army help for Taipei
Friday’s assembly supplied hopes of additional army dialogue that might assist stop flashpoint points from spinning uncontrolled.
Austin mentioned the US and China would resume military-to-military communications “within the coming months”, whereas Beijing hailed the “stabilising” safety relations between the international locations.
“I informed Minister Dong that if he calls me on an pressing matter, I’ll reply the cellphone,” Austin mentioned Saturday.
“And I definitely hope that he’ll do the identical.”
