In todays high-level gathering in Vientiane defense chiefs from across Southeast-Asia sat down with their international counter-parts to tackle regionʼs security matters. The closed-door meet-up brought Lloyd Austin and Dong Jun into same conference room despite growing regional dis-agreements.
The timing of this get-together proved note-worthy as just yesterday Dong Jun turned down a side-line one-on-one chat with his US counter-part (which shows current state of their working relationship). The Chinese defense ministerʼs choice to skip this meet-up adds another layer to already complex regional dynamics
The talks main focus centered on South China Sea where Beijingʼs strong position about its ownership rights keeps making waves: these discussions put ASEAN nations in middle of two big powers competing interests