U.S.-China Defense Ministers' Meeting 'Failure'...China rejects talks because of 'Taiwan arms sales'

The U.S. proposed a defense ministers' meeting with China in the wake of a multilateral meeting in Laos, but China rejected the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan as an issue.

"The U.S. is completely responsible for the failure to hold U.S. ministers' talks during the ASEAN-expanded defense ministers' meeting," Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Uchen said in a statement on the ministry's official social media account.

"The United States cannot interact with the Chinese military on the one hand while undermining China's core interests in Taiwan's affairs," he continued.

"The urgent priority is that the U.S. should immediately correct its mistakes, substantially respect China's core interests and work to create conditions beneficial to high-level military exchanges between the two countries," Wu added.

In response, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it was "unfortunate" and that "the failure of the talks will affect the region, given that the region really wants to see the two important powers talk," Reuters said.