United States Pentagon’s spokesperson, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, said on Tuesday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe the need to improve crisis communication between the two major powers, per Reuters.

“Austin raised concerns about increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese aircraft that increases the risk of an accident,” Brigadier General Ryder added.

Both the Defense chiefs met for the second time this year on the sidelines of the ASEAN defense ministers’ gathering in Cambodia.

Market reaction

At the time of writing, AUD/USD is consolidating the latest uptick near 0.6640, still adding 0.55% on the day.