WASHINGTON – US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Jun at a major defense conference in Singapore next week, the Pentagon announced on Friday.
It will be the first meeting between the two defense leaders following a phone call in April. This comes as the US and China have been gradually working to warm relations, which had been largely frozen since a controversial visit to Taiwan by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2022 resulted in the temporary halt of China of most military-to-military communications.
The announcement came shortly before the Pentagon said Austin would undergo a medical procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday night and would temporarily transfer power to his deputy. Austin is dealing with bladder issues that developed in December following his treatment for prostate cancer.
It was not immediately clear whether the elective, minimally invasive procedure would affect Austin’s travel plans.
He and Dong, China’s national defense minister, are scheduled to meet during the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore next week, an annual gathering of defense ministers and government officials from more than 50 countries.
The meeting also comes, however, as China engages in aggressive military exercises around Taiwan, resulting in Taiwan scrambling jets and putting missile, naval and ground units on alert on Thursday.
China launched the exercises after the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, took office and gave a speech calling on Beijing to cease intimidation against the island but face the realities of its existence. Beijing dismissed his comments as advocating separatism and launched the military exercises.
China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and promises to take it by force if necessary to achieve unification. The US is required by federal law to ensure the island can defend itself.
Following those exercises, the US warned China not to use Taiwan’s political transition as a “pretext or excuse” for provocative or coercive measures, a defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not been released.
The two governments began interacting more after President Biden hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in November in California and emphasized the need to keep communications open.
Dong is a former naval commander who was appointed in late December after his predecessor, Li Shangfu, was removed from office. Dong spoke with Austin by phone in April about issues including the war in Ukraine, freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, Taiwan and North Korea.
Austin last met with a Chinese defense minister in November 2022, when he and Wei Fenghe, then China’s defense minister, were in Cambodia for a regional defense minister’s meeting.
No US Secretary of Defense has visited China since Jim Mattis’s visit in 2018.
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