U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks before a Senate Appropriations hearing on the President’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 16, 2023.
Andrew Harnik/AP
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Andrew Harnik/AP
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin speaks before a Senate Appropriations hearing on the President’s proposed budget request for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on May 16, 2023.
Andrew Harnik/AP
SINGAPORE — The tense relationship between the United States and arms building in the Pacific region will be on display this weekend as defense chiefs, including from the United States and China, gather in Shangri-La Dialogue, an international defense summit, in Singapore.
The dialogue, which began Friday, was overshadowed by China’s refusal to let its defense minister meet US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the forum. But both countries are still leading large delegations to the summit, which brings together diplomats, academics, defense contractors, journalists and analysts from across the Pacific region.
Here are other things to look out for at the Shangri-La Dialogue this weekend.
The US and China are leading the event
Two of the keynote speakers at the summit that begins Friday will not speak to each other.
“Overnight, the People’s Republic of China informed the United States that it had declined our invitation in early May,” the Pentagon said in a statement earlier this week, using the initials Republic. Chinese People.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu sanctioned by the US in 2018, when he was heading the equipment development department of the Chinese military, for purchasing weapons from a sanctioned Russian organization. China has indicated that it will not agree to hold a meeting unless those sanctions are lifted first.
The refusal has dampened hopes that recent bilateral meetings might heal some of the friction between the two superpowers. Last month, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan was able to meet his counterpart, China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Vienna. That meeting was quickly followed by talks between the two countries’ trade chiefs.
This week in Tokyo, Austin tell my Japanese counterpart, Defense Minister Hamada Yasukazu, that it was “regrettable” that China declined the US invitation for the two heads of state to meet. He just to an incident at the end of last monthin which a Chinese fighter jet reportedly came close to an American plane flying over the South China Sea by cutting in front of it at close range, as a pretext for negotiations.
“We hope that they will change their actions. But since they have not changed, I am concerned that, at some point, there will be an incident that could very, very quickly pass. out of control,” Austin said.
Meanwhile, representatives of the United States and Taiwan signed a trade deal on the eve of the security summit and ahead of protests from China, which claims the island as part of China’s territory. Country. The treaty was signed by workers of informal organizations that maintain relations between the United States and democracy on the island.
A competition for regional alliances
Both the US and China are rushing to strengthen their partnerships with Asia-Pacific countries as they build military capabilities in the region.
“In addition, given the serious and complex security environment, we affirm the importance of strengthening cooperation not only between Japan and the United States, but also with South Korea, Australia and ASEAN countries.” , Mr. Austin said during this week’s visit to China. Japan. Austin, the US secretary of defense, is currently on his seventh tour of the Asia Pacific region.
So far, most Southeast Asian countries have tried not to lean too much towards China or the US, and joined in the growing number of joint military exercises with both countries. But China watched with trepidation as the United States forged stronger defense ties with Southeast Asia’s two most populous nations, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Indonesia, the US and 12 other countries jointly held major military exercises last fall. Earlier this year, the US also step increased its military presence in the Philippines by increasing training exercises there and expanding the number of Philippine military bases used by the US military from five to nine.
The deepening military rivalry between the US and China has drawn the surrounding countries, whose interests are at the forefront and center of the Shangri-La Dialogue. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered the keynote address at the opening dinner on Friday. Japan, a key ally of the US was deep concerned Faced with China’s growing hostility towards the nearby island of Taiwan, sent a large delegation.
The dialogue comes at a pivotal moment in Southeast Asian politics
For the smaller Southeast Asian states, the dialogue is an opportunity to map out foreign policy and design informal meetings between officials on the sidelines of closed-door negotiations, and more than a quarter The number of delegates attending the summit came from the region.
In Thailand, a surprise victory of the opposition party in recent national elections could lead to the opening of a more active foreign policy approach to support opposition forces in Myanmar, where the military seize power in a coup in 2021.
Southeast Asia is also maneuvering around how to position itself around the great power rivalry between the US and China. The South China Sea, where China’s disputed territorial claims contradict the overlapping claims of Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia, to name just a few, remains a hot-button issue.
Taiwan and it dominate IN semiconductor manufacturing – an important area of technology in heart of the US – China rivalry – is also an issue of concern to Southeast Asia. Some American companies and Taiwanese chip maker TSMC have find a way to change operate in the region, out of China.
The war in Ukraine, although one hemisphere away, will also be on the agenda. Most Southeast Asian countries have chosen to remain silent about Russia’s aggression. Ukraine has sent its deputy defense minister, Volodymyr Havrylov, to Singapore for the summit, where he will speak at a panel with Andi Widjajanto, a politician from Indonesia who has keep a friendly relationship with Moscow.
