Competing tensions over U.S. global power were highlighted Sunday at a security conference, where China accused the United States of stoking tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea , and where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought greater support for his embattled country.
These scenes played out during the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual security forum in Singapore that has long been a barometer of the ups and downs of U.S.-China relations.
This year, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Chinese Defense Minister Admiral Dong Jun, held discussions, which the senior defense officials of the two countries did not always do during this meeting. But Admiral Dong made clear that China remains deeply opposed to American influence and alliance building in Asia, particularly American support for Taiwan, the island democracy that Beijing claims as its territory.
“These malicious intentions are luring Taiwan into the dangers of war,” Admiral Dong said at the meeting after making an indirect but unequivocal reference to U.S. military and political support for Taiwan. “Anyone who dares to separate Taiwan from China will be crushed to pieces and will race towards their own destruction. »
Admiral Dong’s warnings, like other combative comments from Chinese military officers at the meeting, reflect how Beijing and Washington remain deeply divided on some key regional issues, even as they discuss how to to prevent military frictions at sea and in the air from degenerating into crisis.
Last month, China organized two days of threatening military exercises around Taiwan, accusing its new president, Lai Ching-te, to try to advance the independence of the island. Mr. Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has asserted that Taiwan has a separate status, although Mr. Lai has indicated that he will not seek outright independence.
Mr. Austin warned in a speech Saturday against “actions in this region that erode the status quo and threaten peace and stability,” an indirect reference to Chinese pressure on Taiwan. Mr Austin also said that “we all share the same interest in ensuring that the South China Sea remains open and free”, despite Chinese territorial claims across the sea.
But Admiral Dong accused an unnamed Southeast Asian country – clearly the Philippines – of stirring up trouble over disputed islands and shoals in the sea, and again suggested that the United States was the real culprit.
“A certain country, incited by external forces, abandoned bilateral agreements, broke promises and took premeditated measures to provoke incidents,” he said in his speech to diplomats, military officials and experts, many of whom come from Asian countries. “China has shown sufficient restraint in responding to these provocations, but this restraint has its limits. »
The Philippines is at odds with China over their rival claims in the South China Sea, in an area Manila calls the West Philippine Sea. In 2016, an international tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea rejected China’s broad claims to the South China Sea, which included shoals near the Philippines. Beijing ignored this decision.
At a meeting in Singapore, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. warned Friday that his government may seek U.S. support under a mutual defense treaty in the event a Chinese ship causes the death of a Filipino sailor. .
A U.S. official who heard Admiral Dong’s speech took issue with his depiction of China and its People’s Liberation Army as innocent victims of regional conflicts. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss geopolitical tensions, said the admiral’s assertion contradicted the Chinese military’s “coercive activity” in the region.
Even in Singapore, Mr. Austin and other Western officials also reiterated that Ukraine’s more than two-year war against the Russian invasion continues to demand the attention of their leaders and the resources of their taxpayers. .
Mr. Zelensky was a last-minute addition to the meeting. He met on Sunday with Mr. Austin, who provided an update on U.S. security assistance, according to a Pentagon account of the meeting, before Mr. Zelensky addressed the conference.
In front of The Russian army advances in its countryMr. Zelensky was urging the United States and Europe to step up support for its forces and overcome concerns about letting Ukraine fire U.S. missiles and other weapons at military targets in Russia.
He was greeted with loud applause before delivering a 15-minute speech in support of a Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland next month, which he said officials from 106 countries had agreed to attend. . He called on leaders from the Indo-Pacific region to support the gathering with their participation or ideas.
“We are ready to hear various proposals and reflections that lead not to the continuation of the war – and this is very important – but to its end,” he said. He added that only persistent diplomacy would end the conflict.
“The world must be resilient; he must be strong; it must put pressure on Russia,” he told the assembly. “There is no other way to stop Putin.”
Analysts said his appearance showed the growing interdependence of security issues across the world.
“It reminds countries across Asia and the Indo-Pacific that the war raging in Ukraine is not just a European problem. This is a problem for the world,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the U.S. German Marshall Fund.
“Zelensky recognizes that he needs to come out and remind the world to continue to support the fight his country is engaged in,” said Glaser, who was at the Singapore conference.
Mr. Zelensky said on social media that he also met with members of the U.S. Congress at the meeting in Singapore, including Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, a Republican who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Mr. Zelensky thanked him for help get approval in April for additional military assistance to Ukraine, but also suggested more was needed.
“We talked about the front-line situation and military assistance, especially additional systems and missiles to strengthen our air defense,” Zelensky said.
