Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrives in Vientiane, Laos, on Nov. 19, 2024. (Jackie Sanders/U.S. Air Force)
Lloyd Austin, on one of his last trips to Asia as Defense Secretary, expressed regret Thursday that China chose not to meet with Southeast Asia defense ministers this week in Laos.
At the same press conference, he also talked briefly in praise of women’s contributions in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Every place I went, there were women doing incredible things and they were adding value to the overall effort,” he said.
Defense ministers from the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and eight other regional states gathered for talks Wednesday and Thursday in Vientiane.
China declined an invitation from Austin to attend, citing recent U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, DefenseScoop, an online news site, reported Thursday, citing two unnamed senior U.S. defense officials in Austin’s entourage.
“Now, I regret that the [People’s Republic of China] chose not to meet here,” Austin said Thursday, according to a press conference transcript posted by the Defense Department. “The PRC’s decision is a setback for the whole region. As I’ve said consistently, the right time to meet is any time.”
Austin termed China’s absence as unfortunate. “It affects the region because the region really wants to see us, you know, two significant players in the region, two significant powers, talk to each other. And that reassures the entire region,” he said.
China’s decision has no future implications, Austin said. “I just think that it’s something that they chose to do at this point in time and only they can explain why they chose to not take advantage of a good opportunity.”
Austin also announced a second ASEAN U.S. Maritime Exercise next year, which he said ASEAN members approved Thursday. The first exercise took place in September 2019 and drew more than 1,000 personnel, eight warships and four aircraft from seven countries, according to the Navy.
ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are facing sometimes aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea from Beijing, which claims nearly the entire sea.
Japan, one of eight ASEAN “dialogue partners,” is in similar straits. Its coast guard squares off regularly against Chinese coast guard vessels shadowing fishing boats near the Senkakus, a collection of islets and rocks near Taiwan that Tokyo possesses but Beijing also claims.
Among a range questions from reporters, Austin was asked if he’d personally ever seen an unidentified flying object, or what the Pentagon now calls “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” that threatened national security.
“Well, you know, I quite frankly have not seen any UAP incidents that I would categorize as threatening,” he said.
As for women’s roles in the U.S. military, Austin declined to comment on President-elect Donald Trump’s candidate to succeed him, Pete Hegseth, who has written that he does not support women working with men in the military or in combat roles.
Austin gave an alternate view.
“I can tell you about my experiences with women in the military and women in combat, and they’re pretty good,” he said.
Austin recalled serving as a deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, the spearhead on the Army’s drive to Baghdad in 2003, and working with three women in the division headquarters close to the front.
“In my command post were several very courageous and very proficient women who did amazing things to support our effort and support their colleagues,” he said. “And so, I think our women add significant value to the United States military and we should never change that.”
