Beijing has declined the invitation issued by the United States to hold a meeting this week in Singapore. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is due to travel to Singapore this week to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue conference on Asia-Pacific defence and security.
The current Chinese defense minister was sanctioned in 2018 by the US administration for buying Russian weapons, but the Pentagon assures that this does not prevent the US Secretary of Defense from conducting official exchanges with him. The US administration has since tried to strengthen alliances and partnerships in Asia to counter Beijing's increasingly assertive actions in the region.