"US and China to Hold Defense Ministers' Face-to-Face Meeting as Early as the End of This Month"

The defense ministers of the U.S. and China are expected to hold a face-to-face meeting as early as the end of this month.

According to major foreign media on the 16th (local time), U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun plan to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Asia Security Conference (Shangri-La Dialogue, May 31?June 2), which will open in Singapore at the end of this month.

Lloyd Austin, U.S. Secretary of Defense [Photo by Yonhap News]

The last face-to-face meeting between the U.S. and Chinese defense ministers was about a year and a half ago, when Secretary Austin met with then Chinese Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe during the 9th ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) held in Cambodia in November 2022.

If the bilateral meeting takes place, it will be the first face-to-face meeting between Secretary Austin and Minister Dong.

Dialogue channels between the military authorities of the U.S. and China were virtually severed due to China's strong dissatisfaction over then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Since the U.S.-China summit in San Francisco last November, efforts have been underway to restore these dialogue channels.