Chinese Minister of National Defense Admiral Dong Jun and United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a meeting on the sideline of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The meeting between the Chinese and US defense chiefs in Singapore lasted 75 minutes, \u201clonger than expected,\u201d according to China\u2019s Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s defense minister told his US counterpart that China is not providing weapons to either side of the Ukraine conflict but is upholding peace and dialogue.<\/p>\n
This was the first face-to-face meeting between the Chinese and US defense chiefs since 2022.<\/p>\n
In November 2022, then Chinese defense minister Wei Fenghe met with Lloyd Austin during the ASEAN Defense Ministers\u2019 Meeting-Plus in Cambodia.<\/p>\n
According to Singapore\u2019s Ministry of Defense, Dong also met with Singapore\u2019s new Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on Friday.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Dong held talks with his Singaporean counterpart Ng Eng Hen.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, China\u2019s Defense Ministry announced that Dong would conduct a six-day visit to Singapore where he would also participate in the elite security conference Shangri-La Dialogue and deliver a speech on China\u2019s approach to safeguard global security.<\/p>\n