US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet with Chinese counterpart ‘when that person is named’
- Beijing has not had a defence minister since Li Shangfu was removed from the post in October for unknown reasons
- US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have agreed to resume military-to-military communications, which Beijing suspended in August 2022
Top-level US-China military talks must wait until Beijing appoints a new defence minister, the Pentagon said on Thursday, a day after Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agreed to resume direct military communications.
“As these agreements were just reached yesterday, we know that we have work to do with [China’s] military to solidify these principles for actions,” said Sabrina Singh, the deputy Pentagon press secretary. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin “will meet with his counterpart when that person is named”, she said.
Beijing has not appointed a new defence minister since Li Shangfu was removed from the post in October for unknown reasons.
Austin, who is visiting Indonesia during an Indo-Pacific trip, said on Thursday that there was no substitute for consistent and substantive dialogue between senior leaders. “So we’ll continue to seek practical discussions from a senior leader level to the working level,” he said.
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It is too soon to tell whether China’s pledge to resume military-to-military dialogue signals a broader intent to scale back provocations in the region, so it is critical that the countries maintain open lines of communication, Austin said.
