US chides China over defence talks as its navy sails through Taiwan Strait and near Philippines

SINGAPORE/MANILA, June 3 (Bloomberg): US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin used a speech at Asia’s biggest security conference to warn that a conflict over Taiwan would "affect the global economy in ways that we cannot imagine” and he reiterated calls for greater communication between the American and Chinese militaries.

"Make no mistake: conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be devastating,” Austin said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday. "The whole world has a stake in maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, the whole world.