Washington received a refusal from Beijing will organize a meeting of US defense ministers at the end of November and China because of the sale of weapons by the United States to Taiwan. This was reported by TASS with reference to CNN.
According to the channel, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, had previously offered to hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun on the sidelines of the ASEAN Plus meeting of defense ministers in Laos. However, due to the recent sale of arms by the United States to Taiwan, Beijing refused.
In October, the State Department approved the possible sale of the NASAMS air defense system and radar stations to Taiwan for about $2 billion.
On November 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Peru said that if the United States wants to preserve peace in the Taiwan Strait, it should clearly oppose Taipei's independence and support China's peaceful reunification.