US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Thursday it was “unfortunate” his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu had declined to meet him, given the recent “maneuver” carried out by a Chinese fighter jet near a US surveillance aircraft.
On Tuesday, the US said a Chinese fighter jet carried out an “unnecessarily aggressive” manoeuvre near a US plane over the South China Sea.
“I think that is unfortunate,” Austin told a press conference in Tokyo, referring to the decision by Chinese Minister of National Defence Li Shangfu not to meet him at a conference they will both attend in Singapore this weekend.
Austin said he was concerned that at some point an incident like Tuesday’s between a US and Chinese aircraft “could very quickly spiral out of control”.
In 2018, the administration of former US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the Chinese Minister of National Defence over its purchasing Russian weapons.
Source: Qatar News Agency