US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, refused to meet him in person. Austin said this while speaking at a joint press conference with Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada in Tokyo. TASS.
The meeting of the American and Chinese defense ministers was supposed to be held in Singapore at the beginning of June as part of the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference.
Austin described Li Shangfu’s refusal to go out as “pathetic”. He said the US would continue to work with “like-minded” countries in the Indo-Pacific region where Washington has “common values and common goals such as ‘freedom and openness’”.
Former Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning statedHe said the United States should create favorable conditions for the heads of the two states’ Departments of Defense to meet. According to Beijing, Washington should sincerely respect China’s concerns regarding the protection of its sovereignty, security and interests and rectify its wrongful actions.