Todd Bishop
Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe and US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan held talks on Friday at the Shangari-La Dialogue (SLD), also known as the Asia Security Summit.
The meeting between the two defense chiefs was closely watched by the outside world. The main reason was that Sino-US relations became tense due to trade wars, disputes in the South China Sea, and US support for Taiwan independence. Shanahan has repeatedly publicly criticized China and Russia, saying that the two countries pose a threat to US national security and international security order.
Shanahan is expected to deliver a speech on Saturday (June 1) to announce the latest “Indo-Pacific strategy” of the US Department of Defense. Wei Fenghe will also explain China’s role in the Indo-Pacific region during the meeting.
This is China’s dispatch of defense ministerial officials to the conference after eight years. Wei Feng and He will speak in Shangri-La on June 2nd. This is the first time that the Chinese Defense Minister has attended the summit since 2011. In the past few years, China sent lower-ranking officials to the meeting. How the two defense chiefs of China and the United States interact has received much attention from the outside world.
The Shangri-La Dialogue was initiated by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, England, and was launched in 2002 with the support of the Singapore Government. It is held annually at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore. name. Participants included defense representatives from 28 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, military generals and politicians, etc., aimed at deepening the mutual trust between Asia-Pacific countries in the field of security and defense.
