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A Chinese defence official accused the United States on Saturday of seeking to build an Asia-Pacific version of NATO to maintain its hegemony in the region and described the superpower as the ‘greatest challenge to regional peace and stability’.

Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng made the remarks on the sidelines of a major security forum in Singapore where US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin earlier hailed a ‘new era of security’ for the region.

From Japan to Australia, the United States has been deepening defence ties across the region, ramping up joint military exercises and regularly deploying warships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea—infuriating Beijing.

In the past three years, Austin said there had been a ‘new convergence around nearly all aspects of security’ in the Asia-Pacific, where there was a shared understanding of ‘the power of partnership’.

‘This new convergence is producing a stronger, more resilient and more capable network of partnerships and that is defining a new era of security in the Indo-Pacific,’ Austin told the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

However, it was not ‘about imposing one country’s will’ or ‘bullying or coercion’, Austin said, in an apparent shot at China, which has increased its sabre-rattling over self-ruled Taiwan and grown more confident in pressing its claims in the South China Sea. 

‘This new convergence is about coming together and not splitting apart,’ Austin said. ‘It’s about the free choices of sovereign states.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at a Singapore security forum on Saturday as he seeks to rally support for Kyiv while a Russian offensive gains ground.

Zelensky got out of a white Audi sedan in front of the luxury hotel hosting the Shangri-La Dialogue and walked quickly into the lobby, which was crowded with defence officials from around the world, journalists and hotel guests.

After shaking hands with the organisers of the three-day event, Zelensky was applauded by onlookers and then escorted to an elevator.

Zelensky is set to speak at the security forum at 11:30 am (0330 GMT) on Sunday, according to event organisers the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The Ukrainian leader said in a post on social media platform X he will also ‘hold a number of meetings, particularly with Singapore’s President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Timor-Leste’s President Jose Ramos-Horta, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Singaporean investors’.

Zelensky has been touring European nations in recent days to appeal for more military aid for the Ukrainian army, which has been ceding ground to relentless Russian attacks.

His Singapore stop was announced shortly before his arrival at the hotel. It followed a US decision to partially lift restrictions on using US-provided weapons to strike inside Russia, which Zelensky hailed as a ‘step forward’

The Shangri-La Dialogue, a major security forum attended by defence officials from around the world, has become a barometer of US-China relations in recent years.

This year’s edition comes a week after China held military drills around self-ruled Taiwan and warned of war over the US-backed island following the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing has described as a ‘dangerous separatist’.

Taiwan is one of the thorniest disputes in US-China relations. 

Austin met with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun on Friday for the first substantive face-to-face talks between the two countries’ defence chiefs in 18 months.

China scrapped military communications with the United States in 2022 in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

Friday’s meeting offered hopes of further military dialogue that could help prevent flashpoint issues from spinning out of control.

Austin said the United States and China would resume military-to-military communications ‘in the coming months’, while Beijing hailed the ‘stabilising’ security relations between the countries.

‘I told Minister Dong that if he calls me on an urgent matter, I will answer the phone,’ Austin said Saturday.

‘And I certainly hope that he’ll do the same.’

Underscoring the US commitment to the region, Austin said Saturday that the Asia-Pacific remained Washington’s ‘priority theatre of operations’, noting ‘the United States can be secure only if Asia is’.

‘We are all in and we’re not going anywhere,’ Austin said. 

The Philippines, a treaty ally of the United States, is a key focus of Washington’s efforts to build an arc of alliances across the region.

Austin insisted Saturday that Washington’s commitment to defend Manila under their mutual defence treaty remained ‘ironclad’, as repeated confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels in the South China Sea have stoked fears of a wider conflict.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said Friday that the ‘stabilising presence of the United States is crucial to regional peace’.