US and Chinese defense chiefs meet amid strained relations

By HENG SINITH
Associated Press

SIEM REAP, Cambodia (AP) — The defense chiefs of the United States and China have held talks on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Cambodia to discuss strained bilateral relations and regional and global security issues. It was the second face-to-face meeting in six months between U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin II and Gen. Wei Fenghe, China’s minister of national defense. It came just over a week after a meeting in Indonesia between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping which was widely seen as an effort to ease tensions between the two superpowers over trade and China’s claim to Taiwan. Austin and Wei are attending a meeting of defense ministers from the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and other major countries.