Austin And Li Meet Briefly At Shangri La Security Dialogue

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu have held a "brief meeting" on the margins of the Shangri La Security Dialogue in Singapore.

• According to Reuters, a Pentagon spox says the two defence ministers "shook hands" but "did not have a substantial exchange."
• A formal meeting between Austin and Li is considered crucial to re-establishing defence-to-defence contact between Washington and Beijing.See 13:46 bullet
• The absence of active defence and diplomatic channels has parallels to the tense period which followed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) trip to Taiwan last July.
• That period was broken by an unscheduled meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and counterpart Wang Yi at the G20 foreign ministerial in Bali in October and laid the groundwork for a face-to-face meeting between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November.
• If Austin and Li fail to formally meet in Singapore, Washington is likely to escalate calls for more cabinet-level meetings before the G20 Leaders Summit in New Delhi, India where Biden and Xi would be positioned to conduct a bilateral meeting.