Just days after the US and Chinese defense chiefs held “constructive” face-to-face talks, the two used speeches at Asia’s top regional security conference this weekend to send markedly different messages – an indication that the two superpowers continue to talk past each other. amid their escalating rivalry.
While US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin praised Washington’s deepening network of security partnerships as defining a “new era of security” in the Indo-Pacific, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun used his speech Sunday at the Shangri -La Dialogue in Singapore to create ‘exclusive military alliances’ and attempts to create ‘bloc confrontation’.
“Several small circles targeting other countries cannot make our region more secure and can only create more tension,” Dong said in his debut speech at the forum, accusing Washington of “hegemonic behavior.”
