US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (third from right) posing for photos with South-East Asian defence ministers at the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on Saturday, June 3, 2023. - AFP
SINGAPORE, June 3 (dpa): Conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be "devastating," US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned on Saturday, in a speech at a security conference that provoked a sharp reaction from China.
The whole world had a stake in maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, Austin said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a conference organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
