Siem Reap, Cambodia-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe in Cambodia on Tuesday, with both sides describing the talks as productive without backing away from their core positions.
The rival powers have clashed over a host of issues including Taiwan, security and human rights, but there have been attempts to lower the temperature since a rare summit between the leaders of both countries last week.
US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping tried to cool the rhetoric but the differences were clear -- and the exchange between their defence chiefs was similar.
A senior US defence official said the talks between Austin and Wei on the sidelines of a conference of defence ministers in Siem Reap were “productive” and “professional”.
“Both sides agreed that it’s important that our countries work together to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict”, but “competition remains the defining feature of the relationship”, the official told journalists. Austin sought the “reopening of a number of military-to-military dialogues and mechanisms to help manage that competition responsibly”, the official added.
That was a reference to procedures and exchanges that were scrapped after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August despite furious warnings and threats from Beijing. The US official said Austin and Wei had a “lengthy exchange” on Taiwan during the meeting, which lasted for an hour and a half.
A Chinese defence ministry spokesman described the meeting as “sincere, in-depth, practical and constructive”.