Lloyd Austin and Dong Jun talk South China Sea, Taiwan, North Korea and Ukraine in comprehensive conversation.
United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese equivalent Dong Jun have actually held their very first substantive talks in almost 18 months as the 2 nations work to bring back military ties.
The 2 spoke by means of videoconference on Tuesday, the Pentagon stated in a declaration.
It stated Austin “highlighted the value of regard for high seas flexibility of navigation ensured under global law, particularly in the South China Sea”.
An intensifying diplomatic disagreement and current events in between China and the Philippines, a United States treaty ally, at a challenged shoal have actually turned the tactically considerable South China Sea into a possible flashpoint in between Washington and Beijing.
China declares the sea nearly in its whole while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam declare the locations around their coasts.
A global court ruled in 2016 that China’s nine-dash line, on which Beijing bases its claim, lacked benefit.
“The United States side ought to identify China’s company position, regard China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, and take useful actions to protect local peace,” Dong was priced quote as stating in a declaration by China’s Ministry of Defence.
He likewise alerted the United States over the democratic island of Taiwan, which Beijing declares as its own, stressing it was the “core of China’s core interests”.
Austin’s last considerable interaction with China’s defence minister remained in November 2022 when he fulfilled Wei Fenghe in Cambodia.
Wei was consequently changed by Li Shangfu, who shook hands and spoke briefly with Austin at a security conference in Singapore last June, however stayed away from an official conference. Li, who was under United States sanctions, vanished from view soon later on and was fired in October. Dong was designated in December.
Ways to ‘get along’
The United States and China have actually been working to enhance a relationship that had actually ended up being significantly acrimonious over concerns from Taiwan to the South China Sea, in addition to trade and human rights.
United States President Joe Biden fulfilled Chinese President Xi Jinping in California last November where they accepted stabilise the relationship and resume military ties which had actually been frozen as an outcome of then-US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s see to Taiwan.
The United States’s leading military basic later on held conversations with his Chinese equivalent and this month, United States and Chinese military authorities fulfilled in Hawaii to go over methods the 2 nations might run securely.
China and the United States need to check out methods to “get along” and “slowly build up shared trust” by constructing a “non-conflict, non-confrontation”, practical and cooperative relationship in between their armed forces, Dong was priced quote as stating on his call with Austin.
“The military sphere is the secret … to stabilising the advancement of the relationship and avoiding significant crises from taking place,” he stated.