U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin vowed to help Asian nations push back against what he said was Chinese “bullying,” describing the efforts as necessary to prevent a repeat of the Ukraine crisis in the Pacific.
Austin used a speech to Asia’s biggest security conference Saturday in attempt to reassure the region it was at the “heart of American grand strategy,” despite the European conflict consuming U.S. attention and resources. In his first address to the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, he repeatedly drew comparisons between Russian actions and China’s “more coercive and aggressive approach” to its own territorial claims.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample the rules that protect us all,” Austin told a ballroom filled with defense and security officials from around the globe. “It’s what happens when big powers decide that their imperial appetites matter more than the rights of their peaceful neighbors. And it’s a preview of a possible world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in.”
