For free real-time breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox sign up to our breaking news email
Sign up for our free email newsletter
Sign up for our free email newsletter
Southeast Asian defense chiefs met with China, the United States and other partner countries in Laos for security talks, which came as Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance on its claims over the South China Sea sparked another confrontation.
The closed-door talks put US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun in the same room a day after Dong declined a request to meet Austin one-on-one on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting.
The US and China have been working to improve broken military-to-military communications and Austin said he regretted Dong’s decision, calling it a “setback for the entire region.”
The ASEAN meetings come as member states appear wary of changes in the American administration amid escalating maritime disputes with China. The US has firmly pushed for a “free and open Indo-Pacific” policy under outgoing President Joe Biden and it is not yet clear how President-elect Donald Trump’s administration will address the South China Sea situation.
In addition to the United States and China, other countries participating in the ASEAN meeting from outside Southeast Asia include Japan, South Korea, India, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.
Meetings with ASEAN dialogue partners are also expected to address tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the war in the Middle East.
Before going to Laos, Austin completed meetings in Australia with officials there and with Japan’s defense minister. He pledged to support ASEAN and expressed “serious concern over destabilizing actions in the East and South China Seas, including dangerous actions by the People’s Republic of China against the Philippines and other coastal state ships.”
Along with the Philippines, ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims with China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims is almost entirely its own territory.
Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are other ASEAN members.
As China has become more assertive in pushing territorial claims in recent years, it and ASEAN have discussed a code of conduct to regulate behavior in the sea, but progress has been slow.
Officials have agreed to try to finalize the code by 2026, but talks have been marred by thorny issues, including disagreement over whether the pact should be binding.
Chinese and Philippine ships have clashed repeatedly this year, and Vietnam in October accused Chinese forces of attacking fishermen in disputed territory in the South China Sea. China has also sent patrol boats to areas claimed by Indonesia and Malaysia as exclusive economic zones.
Another thorny regional issue is the civil war and humanitarian crisis in ASEAN member Myanmar. The group’s credibility has been severely tested by the war in Myanmar, where the army ousted an elected government in 2021, and the ongoing war with pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic rebels.
More than a year into an attack launched by three militias and joined by other resistance groups, observers estimate the military is in control of less than half the country.
Myanmar’s military rulers have been banned from ASEAN meetings since the end of 2021, but this year the country was represented by high-level bureaucrats, including at the summit in October.
In defense meetings, the country is represented by Zaw Naing Win, director of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Defense.
Wednesday’s meeting also discussed military cooperation, transnational hazing, disinformation, border security and transnational crimes such as drugs, cyberscam and human trafficking, Thai Defense Ministry spokesman Thanathip Sawangsang said.
