U.S. Seeks Better Military Ties With China as Trade Fight Widens

(Bloomberg) -- Top defense officials from the U.S. and China discussed ways to improve military ties on Friday even as trade tensions worsen between the world’s biggest economies.

Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan held “a constructive and productive” 20-minute meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe in Singapore, according to Pentagon spokesman Joe Buccino. They discussed how both militaries can better cooperate to enforce UN Security Council Resolutions related to North Korea, he said.

“The things that we’ll talk about are finding areas for cooperation,” Shanahan told reporters ahead of the meeting. “That’s how you create upside in the relationship. What we want to avoid are misunderstandings and miscalculation.”

Shanahan is visiting Singapore to attend the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, one of Asia’s most prominent defense forums that attracts top officials from around the world. Both men will deliver closely watched -- and likely contrasting -- keynote addresses.

After months of disruptive tit-for-tat tariffs, Washington and Beijing are competing to sway skeptical allies in the region wary of finding themselves squeezed in an escalating global trade war that may ultimately force them to choose sides. En route to Singapore this week, Shanahan said he thought trade talks could be managed separate from “candid discussions” around issues such as the militarization of the South China Sea.

To contact the reporters on this story: Glen Carey in Washington at gcarey8@bloomberg.net;Iain Marlow in New Delhi at imarlow1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh

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