Defense chiefs of South Korea, United States, Japan, the Philippines and Australia discussed multilateral cooperation on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) defense ministerial meeting in Laos.

Representatives from the US, China, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea met their Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) counterparts Thursday in Laos for an annual meeting of defense chiefs from the bloc. The meeting kicked off Wednesday in Vientiane under the chairmanship of Laos, with meetings held on the sidelines of the event.

Southeast Asian defense chiefs are meeting with China, the United States and other partner nations in Laos for security talks, which come as Beijing’s increasingly assertive stance in its claim to most of the South China Sea is leading to more confrontations.