New York Post report that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin President Trump told senior national security officials on Saturday that he saw no evidence that war with China was imminent, a move that came amid concerns about rising tensions between China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Austin argued for the need to open a dialogue between him and his Chinese counterpart. He made his remarks a day after meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun, the first time defense officials met since a communications breakdown following then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s inauguration as president. Visit Taiwan in 2022.
“Our goal is to make sure things don’t get unnecessarily out of control.”
On the Taiwan issue, neither side made concessions. China has not ruled out using force to retake Taiwan. China’s broad claims to sovereignty in the South China Sea have also caused problems for other countries, particularly the Philippines, according to the report.
Austin did not provide details about his meeting with Jun, but said the most important thing was that talks had resumed.
“As long as we’re talking, we can identify the issues and we want to put guardrails in place to prevent misunderstandings and miscalculations that could spiral out of control,” he said.
“The only time you can do that is when you’re talking,” he added.
Associated Press report Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made clear what was at stake for his country, saying that if China were to engage the tiny nation’s coast guard and result in the killing of Filipinos, that would be “very close to what we would define as an act of war and we will respond accordingly.”
Marcos added that he expected the Philippines’ treaty partners to “maintain the same standards.” The United States is one of the Philippines’ treaty partners.
Austin praised Marcos for “speaking very forcefully last night about the Philippines asserting its sovereignty under international law,” but reportedly did not go into detail about how the United States would respond if Filipinos were killed in a conflict with China.
Austin reiterated the U.S. commitment to the Philippines and highlighted further consultations with China.
“We know things can happen at sea and in the air,” Austin said, “but our goal is to make sure things don’t get unnecessarily out of control.”
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