Shangri La Conference Kicks Off Amid Heightened US-China Tensions

The Shangri La Security Dialogue, one of the most significant events on the international security calendar, kicks off in Singapore today with no sign of a meeting between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his counterpart Li Shangfu - a significant setback to US ambitions to re-establish military-to-military contact.

• China has stonewalled Washington's requests for a meeting due to opposition to ongoing sanctions imposed on Li by the Trump administration in 2018 for the purchase of sanctioned Russian defence equipment.
• Semafor: "Though Washington and Beijing have maintained some lines of communication — last month, their commerce chiefs met, U.S. business leaders visited China, and senior foreign policy officials held talks — there has been little in the way of security dialogue. [The US has] reiterated calls for Beijing to resume security talks [which may], counterintuitively, make them less likely, driving China to view talks as a bargaining chip to be traded for other concessions.”
• A Pentagon press release says Austin, "will meet with regional counterparts and deliver remarks highlighting a number of major achievements over the last year with like-minded partners to advance a shared vision for the Indo-Pacific region."