During the Shangri-La Dialogue, from June 10 to 12 in Singapore, Beijing threatened to intervene in the event of independence from the island. Washington has reaffirmed the strategic importance of Indo-Pacific.
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The Shangri-La Dialogue-The annual high mass of the Defense Ministers of Asia-Pacific-, which was held from June 10 to 12, in Singapore, was an opportunity for the States- United and China to reaffirm their positions on the hottest subject: Taiwan. But also to display their differences on Indo-Pacific, while seeking, despite everything, to maintain a strategic dialogue at the highest level.
From Friday 10, the American defense secretary, Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe, who met for the first time, had an exchange which lasted an hour, apparently, thirty minutes more than intended. According to a spokesperson for the Chinese minister, he would have told his counterpart that “if anyone who is to separate Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will not hesitate to start a war, whatever it costs “.
If the official agency China Nouvel insists that “the principle of a single China is the political foundation of relations between China and the United States”, it also indicates that the two ministers “have agreed that The two armies must implement the important consensus reached by their heads of state, maintain a high -level strategic communication and not transform the differences into conflict and confrontation “.
In his intervention on June 11, Lloyd Austin recalled Washington’s official position on Taiwan: “We do not support the independence of Taiwan, he said. We firmly oppose any unilateral change in the status quo, from any party. “A message that is aimed at Taiwanese leaders but also, of course, Chinese. Because, according to him, “if our policy has not changed, it seems that unfortunately, this is not true for the People’s Republic of China”. “We see a clear increase in provocative and destabilizing military activities near Taiwan,” he deplored.
Indo-Pacific, “heart of the great American strategy”
But General Austin mainly mentioned the Indo-Pacific, a term which he used at twenty-one times. The message is clear. Neither the war in Ukraine nor China will attack Washington’s will to consider this region as “the heart of the great American strategy”, its “center of gravity”. A region where “more than 300,000 men and women in the American army are stationed. More than in any other region of the world”.
If he affirms “not to seek a new cold war, an Asian NATO, an region divided into hostile blocks”, General Austin reaffirmed the commitment of Americans in the region, with their allies, their partners, that ‘They find in Aukus (alliance with Australia and the United Kingdom), Quad (Australia, Japan, India) or Asean, these countries of South South Asia -Sit recently invited for the first time to a summit with Joe Biden.
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