‘The ball is in their court’: China silent on US request for defence chief talks, senior official says
- Beijing yet to respond to Washington about proposed meeting between Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu and American counterpart Lloyd Austin
- The two are set to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore next week, but China is unlikely to agree to talks unless US lifts sanctions against Li
Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday, US assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs Ely Ratner reiterated that Washington hoped for “open lines of communication”, but that China had yet to reciprocate.
“Several weeks ago, Secretary Austin and the Department of Defence issued a request to meet with General Li,” Ratner said. “That request has not been answered.
“The United States and the Department of Defence have an outstretched hand on this question of military-to-military engagement and we have yet to have had a consistently willing partner [in China].”
Li and Austin have yet to talk since the former’s promotion to defence minister in March, but both will attend the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore starting on June 2.
