US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin addressing a plenary session at the 21st Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. - ST
SINGAPORE: The United States wants to step up the enmeshing of its strategic alliances and partnerships in Asia into a “new convergence” based on the rule of law – a commitment that its Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said will continue regardless of the outcome of the US election in November.
Austin evoked “a future of fresh and growing partnerships” in a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday (June 1), which immediately elicited a question from a Chinese delegate on whether the US was planning to build “a Nato-like system in the Asia-Pacific region”.
In response, the US Secretary of Defence described it as a strengthening of relationships with allies and partners based on a common vision and common values.
While China and the US are competing for influence in the Asia-Pacific region, he sought to allay concerns from allies that Washington has become too distracted by other flashpoints in the world, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the crisis in Gaza.
“Despite these historic clashes in Europe and the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific has remained our priority theatre of operations,” he said.
“The actions that we take together here will continue shaping the 21st century for the entire world. And safeguarding the security and prosperity of this region remains the core organising principle of US national security policy.”
He declared: “The United States can be secure only if Asia is, and that’s why the United States has long maintained its presence in this region.”
Austin told the security conference that “today we are witnessing a new convergence around nearly all aspects of security in the Indo-Pacific”.
“This new convergence is producing a stronger, more resilient, and more capable network of partnerships,” he added. “It isn’t about imposing one country’s will; it’s about summoning our sense of common purpose.”
Austin pointed to the US partnerships with Japan and India in defence technology, the Aukus defence technology transfer partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom, and the help rendered to South-east Asian nations in technology and training to uphold freedom of navigation in their waters.
“It isn’t about bullying or coercion; it’s about the free choices of sovereign states. And it’s about nations of goodwill uniting around the interests that we share and the values that we cherish,” he said, without making overt references to China in his prepared comments.
He said that common principles include a respect for sovereignty and international law, free flow of commerce and ideas, freedom of the seas and skies, as well as the peaceful resolution of disputes through dialogue, “not coercion or conflict, and certainly not through so-called punishment”.
The Shangri-La Dialogue 2024 is taking place just over a week after China launched military drills on May 23 in the Taiwan Strait as a “punishment” and warning to Taiwan’s newly inaugurated President Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing regards as a “dangerous separatist.”
Beijing has never ceded its claim over Taiwan, which has been self-governing since the Chinese nationalist party, or Kuomintang, fled to the island from the mainland following its defeat in the Chinese civil war in 1949.
In the South China Sea, there have been dangerous skirmishes between Chinese and Filipino coast guard vessels.
Beijing has rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that struck down its expansive claims over large swathes of the crucial waterway that is also rich in minerals, saying they lack legal basis.
Austin had earlier met his Chinese counterpart for the first time in 18 months on the sidelines of this year’s forum on May 31, after being rebuffed by Admiral Dong Jun’s predecessor at the 2023 dialogue.
Communication between the two powers was suspended after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022 and a Chinese spy balloon was found floating over parts of the US in early 2023.
The lack of dialogue sparked global worries that an accidental miscalculation may spark a bigger conflict.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have made multiple working visits to China since the US and China resumed dialogue in late 2023, culminating in a meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping in San Francisco on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders’ summit in November 2023.
“The key issue here is that we’re talking,” Austin said in response to an audience question. “And I told (Minister) Dong that if he calls me on an urgent matter, I will answer the phone, and I hope he will do the same.” - The Straits Times/ANN
