Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with their Chinese counterparts, in the latest signal that the two sides are preparing for a meeting between their two leaders.
Hegseth told China’s Minister of National Defense, Admiral Dong Jun, that the US doesn’t seek conflict with Beijing nor is it pursuing regime change, the Pentagon said. The US also isn’t aiming for “strangulation of the PRC,” according to the readout of the call.
“He forthrightly relayed that the U.S. has vital interests in the Asia-Pacific, the priority theater, and will resolutely protect those interests,” according to the statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
On Wednesday, Rubio spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and “emphasized the importance of open and constructive communication on a range of bilateral issues,” Tommy Pigott, the State Department’s principal deputy spokesman, said in a statement. They also addressed other global and regional issues as a continuation of their first in-person discussions in Kuala Lumpur, Pigott said.
Both US statements employed diplomatic language around the “candid and constructive” conversations and agreement to hold further discussions, indicating that communications between the two global superpowers remain on track amid fragile trade negotiations and ongoing skirmishes in Asian waters.
Rubio said after that July meeting that a summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping looked likely, and Trump has said he’d like it to happen. Neither the statement from Hegseth nor Rubio referenced a possible meeting.
Trump told European officials he’s willing to impose sweeping new tariffs on India and China to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table with Ukraine, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
The US defense attaché in Beijing will represent the Department of Defense at China’s top annual security gathering, the Xiangshan Forum, next week, a department official said in a separate statement to Bloomberg.
Dong called for a stable and open relationship with the US in his first talk with Hegseth. Any military attempt to support Taiwan’s independence or “use Taiwan to contain China” will fail, he told Hegseth in the video call, according to a statement from China’s Defense Ministry.
He added that China and the US should maintain communications and build a relationship between the two militaries based on mutual respect.
“China is committed to working with regional countries to safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea, firmly opposes individual countries’ acts of infringement and provocation, as well as deliberate disruption by external powers,” Dong said.
China described the call as candid, pragmatic and constructive.
Dong skipped a key defense forum in Singapore earlier this year, which would have allowed for the first encounter between the two officials. At the Shangri-La Dialogue, reporters asked about Dong’s absence and a senior US defense official declined to preview any plans for a conversation between him and Hegseth.
In his remarks in Singapore, Hegseth said the US was not seeking war with China, but urged allies to invest more in defense due to the threat posed by Beijing, prompting a protest from the Chinese foreign ministry.
www.hindustantimes.com
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