Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Gen. Wei Fenghe, the minister of national defense of the People’s Republic of China, on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The two defense leaders spoke for roughly 90 minutes for the first time since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) traveled to Taiwan in what became a major source of friction between the two adversarial countries. The relationship between China and the United States has continued to fissure from disagreements on issues, including Taiwan, alleged human rights abuses toward minorities in China, and China’s continued military expansion and aggression in the region.
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