Dong made these statements in a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, a major security forum during which he met US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday.
What did Dong say?
• We have always been open to exchanges and cooperation, but this requires both sides to meet halfway.
• We believe that we need more exchanges precisely because there are differences between our armies.
• Beijing will “work resolutely and forcefully” to prevent Taiwan’s independence.
• The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has always been a great and solid force in defending the unification of the motherland, and it will move firmly and forcefully at all times to prevent Taiwan’s independence and ensure that it never succeeds in its attempts.
• The Chinese minister warned that Beijing’s patience has “limits” regarding the South China Sea.
Dong and Austin met for more than an hour at the hotel that hosts the forum, which is attended by defense officials from all over the world and has in recent years become a measure of US-Chinese relations.
After the meeting, Austin said that telephone talks between American and Chinese military leaders would resume “in the coming months.”
Austin reaffirmed the commitment made by Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at the San Francisco summit in November 2023 regarding the resumption of telephone talks at the military commander level in the coming months.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who arrived in Singapore on Saturday, is scheduled to speak at the forum on Sunday morning, and will hold meetings with a number of officials, including the US Secretary of Defense.
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