US seeks meeting with China Defence Minister in Singapore

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is seeking a meeting between US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart in Singapore in June, according to sources familiar with the matter, as the Biden administration tries again to restart military contacts despite China’s earlier refusal.

The sources with knowledge of the US outreach to Defence Minister Li Shangfu asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Martin Meiners, a US Defence Department spokesman, said the department did not have any meetings to announce. Using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China, he added that the Pentagon “seeks to maintain open lines of communication with PRC military leaders, including the PRC Minister of National Defence”.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If Beijing accepts, the meeting between Mr Austin and Mr Li would represent the most senior in-person meeting between the two sides

since an alleged Chinese spy balloon transited the United States in February

and sent relations to a new low. China has rebuffed multiple requests for Mr Austin or General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to speak by phone with their Chinese counterparts since then.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s visits to the US

on her way to and from Central America in recent weeks only added to strains. 

The proposed Austin-Li meeting would take place on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum in Singapore organised by the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Mr Austin met Mr Li’s predecessor Wei Fenghe at the same event in 2022.

US President Joe Biden has repeatedly stressed the need to place “guard rails” around the increasingly combative US-China relationship, but China says those efforts are not genuine. A long-anticipated call between Mr Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping has yet to take place. 

Any meeting would be awkward for both sides. The US slapped sanctions on Mr Li in 2018 for allegedly aiding in the transfer of Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 missile system equipment to China from Russian arms seller Rosoboronexport.

It also puts China in a difficult position. Beijing has sought to use access to its top leaders as leverage, insisting that the US must adopt friendlier policies first. But refusing to meet in Singapore would risk irking other countries in the region that are pressing both sides to ease tensions.

Asked whether the sanctions against Mr Li could affect any meeting, Lt-Col Meiners said Mr Austin was allowed to “engage in official United States government business” with Mr Li under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act.

BLOOMBERG