The meeting, scheduled to take place on Friday evening in Singapore, will focus in part on “setting guard rails on the relationship,” one official said, while calling for more mature crisis communications mechanisms to ensure that the growing competition between the world’s two preeminent world powers does not escalate into conflict.
“One of the ground rules that we aim to establish with the PRC is that we’re going to characterize our position and they can characterize their position,” the official said. “I think we are taking every effort to ensure that this is a professional, substantive meeting.”
The meeting comes during Austin’s fourth trip to the Indo-Pacific region after a formal request from China’s military leadership.
In addition to trying to establish lines of communication at the highest levels of the militaries, the US also wants to see communication mechanisms between commanders at the theater level.
“This has been a priority for us in the defense relationship,” the official said. The US also has a “relatively new” crisis communications working group with China, the official said. While there isn’t a date set for the next meeting, both sides agree that it should happen this year. Wei emphasized the working group in the call, according to the official.
The US has frequently called out what it views as China’s growing aggression in the region, accusing the People’s Liberation Army of unsafe and dangerous activity, particularly around the South China Sea and Taiwan.
“The Taiwan issue will figure prominently in all of the secretary’s conversations,” the senior defense official said.