SINGAPORE: The US and Chinese defence ministers held talks in Singapore on Friday, as the superpowers lock horns over security disputes.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue summit, which brings together security officials from around the world, for around an hour.
Beijing will “not hesitate to start a war” if Taiwan declares independence, China’s defence minister warned his US counterpart in the pair’s first face-to-face talks, officials said.
“If anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will definitely not hesitate to start a war no matter the cost,” Wu Qian quoted defence minister Wei Fenghe as saying during a meeting with Lloyd Austin.
The Chinese minister also vowed that Beijing would “smash to smithereens any ‘Taiwan independence’ plot and resolutely uphold the unification of the motherland”, according to the Chinese defence ministry.
He “stressed that Taiwan is China’s Taiwan… Using Taiwan to contain China will never prevail”, the ministry said.
Austin is the latest senior US official to visit Asia as Washington seeks to shift its foreign policy focus back to the region from the Ukraine war.
Wei told reporters the talks were “honest and sincere” and went “smoothly”. Austin tweeted they had “discussed (US-China) defence relations, as well as global and regional security issues”.
The pair had previously only held discussions on the phone in April. – AFP