Beijing has rejected an invitation from the United States to host a meeting between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu in Singapore this week, the Pentagon said on Monday, lamenting the “disturbing” attitude, AFP reported.

China “informed the United States that it declined our invitation in early May for Secretary Austin to meet with National Defense Minister Li Shangfu this week in Singapore,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said in a statement.

“The worrisome reluctance of the People’s Republic of China to engage in meaningful military-to-military discussions will not diminish our commitment to try to open lines of communication with the Chinese military,” the spokesman added.

Lloyd Austin is due to travel to Singapore this week for the Shangri-La Dialogue on Defense and Security in the Asia-Pacific. In the previous edition, in June 2022, he met Li Shangfu’s predecessor Wei Fenghe.

China’s current defense minister was sanctioned by the US administration in 2018 for buying Russian weapons, but the Pentagon assures us that this does not prevent the US defense minister from having an official exchange with him.

In late 2022, tensions between Beijing and Washington escalated over Taiwan and an alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down by a US jet while flying over the United States.

Since then, the US administration has sought to strengthen alliances and partnerships in Asia to counter Beijing’s increasingly aggressive actions in the region, but they have also shown signs of detente.

In May, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Vienna. And US President Joe Biden recently indicated that relations between Washington and Beijing should ease “very soon.”