The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue is Asia’s premier defence summit. It’s a unique meeting where ministers debate the region’s most pressing security challenges, engage in important bilateral talks and come up with fresh approaches together. A positive from the 21st Shangri-La dialogue on 31 May to 2 June 2024 was that US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin actually sat down for a 75-minute meeting with his new Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun. According to a regional expert, the annual Singapore sound-off between the defence ministers of China and the US had a little less roar-roar and a fraction more jaw-jaw. Like Japanese Kabuki theatre, the annual Shangri-La performance has developed ritual moves and traditional lines. The US defence secretary always addresses the opening session on Saturday while China’s defence minister takes the same first slot on Sunday. China and the US each get a session to itself, while other defence ministers do sessions in threes.

The USA Secretary of Defence Lloyd James Austin’s speech described the US effort to build a matrix of relationships in the Indo-Pacific to underpin its competition with China; he also emphasised the need for more communication. Austin began with what’s now a familiar line on dealing with China: ‘Dialogue is not a reward; it’s a necessity’. The big thought in Austin’s Shangri-La speech was what he called the ‘new convergence around nearly all aspects of security in the Indo-Pacific’. The American vision is of the........

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