By Jan Hennop and Matthew Walsh
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is the headline speaker at Asia’s premier defence summit opening Friday, but China’s top officials aren’t expected despite weighty questions like Taiwan and the war in Iran.
Beijing’s defence minister is to skip the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore for the second year running, which analysts viewed as a sign of China’s rising power.
Yet, the forum that brings together top officials from around 45 nations has historically provided a setting for debate as well as quiet and high-profile diplomacy.
Defence Minister Dong Jun’s absence means no meeting there with Hegseth as China warns the US over its involvement with Taiwan and Washington seeks an end to the Mideast war.
The Middle East was the source of 57 percent of China’s direct seaborne crude imports in 2025 — 5.9 million barrels per day (mbd) — maritime tracking firm Kpler said.
Hegseth’s second trip to the Shangri-La Dialogue comes after US President Donald Trump’s visit to China in May, and his subsequent suggestion that US arms sales to Taiwan could be used as a bargaining chip with Beijing.
See also: China is ‘preparing’ to use military force in Asia, US says
Hegseth’s speech on Saturday is expected to be “quite strong against China, but mainly for internal (US) consumption”, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
“I think under Trump anything is negotiable and even with enemies deals can be done… (even) with Taiwan as a negotiating chip,” Oh told AFP.
Trump said “fantastic” trade deals were struck after his visit to China, although details were vague and no breakthrough with Beijing emerged in the war with Iran.
As the US and Iran clashed again on Thursday, threatening to derail a fragile push for peace, it “is unlikely that any possible deal will be discussed at the Shangri-La Dialogue”, Oh said.
China sent Dong to the dialogue as recently as 2024, where he and then Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin met for their first substantive face-to-face talks in 18 months.
“Dong was absent last year, reportedly due to China’s reluctance to engage with… Hegseth,” said William Choong, principal fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute think-tank.
China said Thursday it would send experts and scholars from its army’s study institutions.
Major General Meng Xiangqing of the National Defense University will lead the delegation, which is to include scholars from the National Defense University, the Academy of Military Sciences and the Navy.
Two other former defence ministers Wei Fenghe and Li Shangfu previously spoke at Shangri-La. Both were subsequently handed suspended death sentences on graft charges, analysts point out.
“It’s kind of a poisoned chalice for any Chinese defence minister to speak out publicly,” said Jennifer Parker, adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia’s Defence and Security Institute.
With Dong again not attending, one of the reasons seemed obvious, said Choong, writing for the Lowy Institute think-tank.
“For one thing, China has truly arrived as a major power in the region, so it does not really need to send its defence minister to brave a fusillade of questions and try to ‘score’ brownie points,” he said.
Beijing, however, like last year, risked not having a senior leader present if the two most pertinent global security issues — Taiwan and the opening of the Strait of Hormuz — do come up.
“At a time when perceptions of US leadership are falling, Beijing could soothe some jangled nerves in the region by reassuring delegates that it would use force against the island only as a last resort,” Choong said.
The defence ministers of the United States, Britain and Australia — the members of the AUKUS security alliance — are also due to convene.
AUKUS’s stated goal is to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region, though it is widely seen as a bulwark against a rising China, which strongly opposes the pact.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Friday that Canberra was seeking “the maintenance of the global rules-based order” in the region.
“We’ve seen China engage in a very significant military buildup… and it has not happened with the kind of strategic reassurance which (we) would expect,” he told journalists at the forum.
“Fundamentally, we want to have a productive relationship with China. We want to live in a world which is governed by rules.”
Australian media outlets have reported, citing unnamed sources, that the AUKUS nations are expected to announce a major project, perhaps involving uncrewed underwater vehicles.
LONDON, June 14 — Britain’s King Charles has celebrated his official birthday with a ceremony showcasing the British Army’s ceremonial prowess.
Charles took part in the famous Trooping the Colour ceremony, where military pomp and pageantry were on display in the heart of the capital, PA Media/dpa reported.
Catherine, princess of Wales, and her children joined Queen Camilla and thousands of spectators to view the spectacle featuring some of the nation’s most prestigious regiments.
Future king Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, eight, watched their grandfather from the first-floor window of the Duke of Wellington’s former office overlooking the parade ground in central London.
Trooping the Colour is as much a social occasion as a ceremonial event, and the stands at Horse Guards Parade were filled with about 8,000 family members of the guards and officers on parade.
Crowds had gathered to watch the royal family’s carriage procession from Buckingham Palace with Charles and Camilla in the middle of a Sovereign’s Escort provided by the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.
Riding behind the King were the royal colonels — the prince of Wales, who is colonel of the Welsh Guards; the princess royal, colonel of the Blues and Royals; and the duke of Edinburgh as colonel of the Scots Guards.
The route was lined for the first time by personnel from all three military services, including units from the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards to the 26 Engineer Regiment, 16th and 4th Regiments Royal Artillery, the Royal Lancers, the RAF Regiment and the Royal Navy.
The King’s first duty was to inspect the troops, and he was followed by the royal colonels William, Anne and Edward as he travelled in a carriage past service personnel with the queen.
In summer sunshine, Charles’s carriage passed the ranks of just over a thousand guardsmen from the Grenadier, Scots, Irish and Coldstream Guards regiments. The Welsh Guards were represented by their band because their troops are on operational training.
The colour — the regimental flag — being trooped this year is the King’s Colour of the Grenadier Guards, presented by Charles earlier this week during a Buckingham Palace ceremony. It will be escorted during Saturday’s spectacle by guardsmen from the King’s Company.
The head of state always wears the uniform of the regiment trooping its colour, and was dressed in a Grenadier Guards tunic and forage cap.
Camilla honoured her regiment in a red silk crêpe Grenadier Guards uniform dress by Fiona Clare, paired with a black beret with a white plume by Philip Treacy, featuring her Grenadier Guards cap badge and a Grenadier Guards brooch on her shoulder.
In centuries past, colours — or flags — were carried or “trooped” down the ranks so soldiers would recognise them on the battlefield.
In the 18th century, guards from the royal palaces assembled daily on Horse Guards to “troop the colours” and it was around that time that it was decided the parade would also mark the sovereign’s official birthday.
The King’s actual birthday is on November 14, when he will turn 78.
The Grenadier Guards are celebrating their 370th anniversary and have a close affinity with the monarch because they were raised in 1656 in Bruges, Belgium, by the exiled king Charles II to protect him during the period Oliver Cromwell ruled England.
Since their formation, the guardsmen — known for their scarlet tunics and bearskin hats — have fought in every major conflict in British military history from the 17th century Battle of Tangiers, to Blenheim, Waterloo, the Crimean War, through both world wars, to recent operations in Afghanistan.
Today, the regiment is formed of fighting soldiers who carry out a specialist light infantry role during operations and when in the UK take part in high-profile ceremonial duties.
During the ceremony, the colour was first trooped through the ranks of soldiers before the guardsmen marched past the King, first in slow and then in quick time.
As the colours passed the royal dais Charles, Camilla and Kate stood with the King saluting. — Bernama-PA Media/dpa
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