Chinese Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe holds talks with US Defense Secretary Austin in Cambodia

Asia-Pacific, News, US November 24, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

China’s Minister of National Defense General Wei Fenghe met with Chief of the U.S. Department of Defense Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus in Siem Reap, Cambodia, on November 22, 2022.

It was the second face-to-face meeting between the two defense officials this year. The meeting was described as “productive and professional” by U.S. defense officials. It lasted for more than 90 minutes as they discussed a wide range of issues, especially regarding China’s increasing military presence around Taiwan.

According to the Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, “Secretary Austin and General Wei discussed U.S.-PRC defense relations and regional and global security issues. Secretary Austin emphasized the need to responsibly manage competition and maintain open lines of communication.”

Despite tensions between the United States and China, U.S. military officials have long sought to maintain open lines of communication with their Chinese counterparts to mitigate the risk of potential flare-ups or deal with any accidents.

The U.S.-China security relations reached a critical point this year when U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on an unannounced trip in August, enraging Beijing. After Pelosi’s visit, China announced it was halting dialogue with the United States in a number of areas, including between theater-level military commanders.

This is the first formal dialogue between the two defense chiefs since the controversial visit took place. Austin and Wei’s first met this year in Singapore in June, where both sides agreed that the continuation of talks was an important step in efforts to develop those means of communication.

^{U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with China’s Defense Minister General Wei Fenghe, while attending the Association of Southeast Asia Nations’ meeting of defense ministers in Siem Reap, Cambodia on November 22, 2022. (Image Credit: Chad McNeeley/U.S. DOD)}

The statement released by the U.S. Department of Defense states that “Secretary Austin discussed Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine and underscored how both the United States and the PRC oppose the use of nuclear weapons or threats to use them. Secretary Austin also expressed concerns about recent provocations from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and called on the PRC to fully enforce existing U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding the DPRK’s unlawful weapons programs.”

The meeting between the two ministers took place on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Cambodia. Both China and U.S. are pushing hard to increase defense cooperation in the Southeast Asian region especially through enhancing their political ties in the region through engagements with ASEAN, the 10-nations organization that majorly represents all affairs related to the region.

Last week, President of the United States Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for the first time in a bilateral meeting since Biden became president. The two leaders discussed a wide array of issues related to the U.S.-China bilateral relations as well as Taiwan and Ukraine. The meeting is being termed as an effort to cool down the increasing tensions between the two countries.

According to the White House statement, U.S. President Biden underscored that “the United States and China must work together to address transnational challenges – such as climate change, global macroeconomic stability including debt relief, health security, and global food security – because that is what the international community expects.”