US and China defence ministers in first significant contact since 2022

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken to his Chinese counterpart for the first time, in the latest effort to ease tensions between the militaries since President Joe Biden held a summit with Xi Jinping last year.

The Pentagon and the Chinese defence ministry said Austin spoke on Tuesday to Dong Jun, a retired admiral who became defence minister in December. It was the first significant minister-level engagement between the militaries since November 2022.

The call is the latest effort to stabilise ties since Xi, the president of China, agreed in San Francisco to resume military engagements that China halted after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022. It also comes as US secretary of state Antony Blinken prepares to visit China in the coming weeks.

Dong said military affairs were the key to implementing the two presidents’ consensus to stabilise and improve bilateral relations. The armed forces of China and the US “should search for a way to get along with each other, and base their interactions on cherishing peace, prioritising stability and building trust”, he told Austin, according to a statement released by his ministry on Wednesday.

A senior US defence official said the call and other engagements “provide us with opportunities to prevent competition from veering into conflict by speaking candidly about our concerns”, which he said included the South China Sea and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

The Pentagon said the two officials discussed a range of regional and global security issues and that Austin had stressed the importance of the freedom of navigation that is guaranteed under international law, especially in the South China Sea.

According to the Chinese readout, Dong said: “The US side should recognise the Chinese side’s firm position, really respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea.” He demanded “concrete actions” from the US to secure regional peace and a stable bilateral military relationship.

Senior US officials on Friday accused China of providing Russia with a wide range of technology, including engines for cruise missiles and drones, that it said was enabling Moscow to rebuild its defence industrial base.

Austin met then-defence minister Wei Fenghe in Cambodia two years ago. Wei was succeeded by Li Shangfu in March 2023, but Beijing refused to set up a meeting with Austin unless Washington removed sanctions imposed on Li by the Trump administration in 2018.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue defence forum in Singapore in June 2023, Austin and Li exchanged pleasantries when they were seated at the same table at a dinner. But Li disappeared from sight shortly after returning to China and was ousted in October in connection with a corruption probe.

In one sign of lower tensions since the San Francisco summit, Chinese fighter jets have stopped the “risky and coercive” intercepts that involve dangerous manoeuvres around US spy planes.

But the Pentagon remains very concerned about Chinese behaviour around the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef in the South China Sea. In recent months, the Chinese coastguard has tried to stop the Philippines from resupplying marines on a ship called the Sierra Madre that is lodged on the reef.

Manila grounded the ship in 1999 to reinforce its claim to the reef. Chinese coastguards have used water cannons to block the resupply missions, injuring Filipino sailors. Biden last week warned China that the US-Philippines mutual defence treaty applied to the Sierra Madre.

This month, US officers from Indo-Pacific Command met Chinese officers for the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement talks designed to reduce the potential for accidents between the militaries.

US and Chinese defence policy officials also restarted a previously routine dialogue in January. In December, General CQ Brown, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, held his first call with his counterpart, General Liu Zhenli.

But the senior defence official on Monday said China still had not agreed to set up a meeting between the head of Indo-Pacific command, Admiral John Aquilino, and his two counterparts in the People’s Liberation Army.