Top defense officials from Asia and US meet in Laos as regional talks heat up
Defense leaders from Southeast Asia US and China gathered in Laos for key regional security talks. Chinese ministerʼs decision to skip one-on-one meeting with US counterpart adds extra weight to discussions
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
