US defense chief calls China's refusal to meet during unfortunate

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin stressed the importance of communication during a stopover with talks Thursday in Tokyo, calling it unfortunate that his Chinese counterpart refused to meet him at an annual security conference in Singapore, which both men are attending.

On the way to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue Asian security summit this weekend, Austin held talks with Japanese Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada. Noting China's increasingly assertive military actions in international airspace and waterways in the region, he told a joint news conference in Tokyo, The provocative intercepts of our aircraft and also our allies' aircraft, that's very concerning, and we would hope that they would alter their action.

The United States military said Tuesday that a Chinese fighter jet flew aggressively close to a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea, forcing the American pilot to fly through the turbulent wake.

I'm concerned about at some point having an incident that