27-6-2023 (HANOI) China’s Defense Minister, Li Shangfu, expressed China’s willingness to enhance high-level communication and cooperation between the militaries of China and Vietnam during a meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart in Beijing on Tuesday (June 27).
According to a statement from the Chinese defense ministry, Li highlighted the chaotic and intertwined international situation and the security challenges faced by the Asia-Pacific region. He emphasized the importance of China and Vietnam working together and closely uniting in their shared journey of socialism to safeguard their common strategic interests and contribute to regional peace and stability.
Li acknowledged the positive development of military relations between China and Vietnam and expressed China’s military’s willingness to take the relationship to a new level. The meeting between the defense ministers took place following the visit of the USS Ronald Reagan, a US aircraft carrier, to the Vietnamese port of Danang on Sunday. This marked the third such visit by a US aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War ended. The presence of the US navy in the region comes amid tensions between China and the United States in the South China Sea, where China claims most of the territory, and both powers seek influence in the energy-rich region.
While Li has recently met with military officials from South Africa and Thailand, he has not held talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Although both Li and Austin attended a security summit in Singapore in early June, Li declined an offer for a meeting. Li, who assumed the position of defense minister in March, is currently under US sanctions due to his involvement in a 2017 weapons purchase from Russia’s leading arms exporter. China has called for the sanctions to be lifted to facilitate discussions.
Given the simmering tensions in the South China Sea, where multiple countries have overlapping territorial claims and conduct military exercises, any progress in Sino-US military relations is being closely monitored. Last year, Beijing suspended three significant channels of military communication with the United States in response to a visit to Taiwan by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
