Foreign Policy magazine (June 9) said that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is likely to
have his first face-to-face meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, in Singapore on
June 10. It said the United States is looking for better lines of communication between Austin
and Wei as well as increased engagement between Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and his Chinese counterpart and between the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command chief
and Chinese regional commanders. U.S. officials said they have seen “some progress” toward
establishing communication mechanisms with China but did not elaborate further. Senior U.S. defense officials said China requested the meeting on June 10 between Austin and Wei. The
meeting comes as China appears to be consolidating basing and security deals in Southeast
Asia and the South Pacific that have rattled U.S. officials, who believe Beijing has not been
transparent about its true plans. A senior U.S. defense official briefing reporters said, “This
meeting is in part about setting guardrails on the relationship, continuing to call for developing
more mature crisis communications and risk management mechanisms as well as an
opportunity for the secretary to share some significant concerns we have about global and
regional security issues.”
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