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(CNN) -- China remains the "main long-term challenge" to the existing international order and there is no evidence that Russia's faltering invasion of Ukraine has changed Beijing's thinking around "the timescale or methodology" for any potential attack on Taiwan, a leading strategic think tank said ahead of a regional security summit in Singapore.

The conflict in Europe may also accelerate trends in the Asia-Pacific region toward increased military spending and efforts to develop military capabilities, according to a report released Friday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which hosts its annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this weekend.

The war and its repercussions in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the growing struggle between the United States and China, will be the main themes of the security summit, which has long served as a platform for senior security officials to meet face-to-face.

Attendees are expected to include U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

The U.S. and Chinese defense chiefs are not scheduled to meet this year, underscoring the depth of the fracture in relations between the two countries.

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On Thursday, Austin said it was "unfortunate" that China rejected a U.S. offer to meet at the conference and warned that the current miscommunication could result in "an incident that could very, very quickly spiral out of control."

Beijing earlier this week refuted the claim that it was blocking communication efforts by U.S. defense officials, instead blaming the U.S. for creating "artificial obstacles, seriously undermining mutual trust between the two militaries."

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Taiwan in the spotlight

U.S. and region-wide concern about China's growing steadfastness has been growing in recent years as Beijing rapidly expanded its navy, militarized islands in the South China Sea, sought to forge security pacts in the South Pacific and stepped up rhetoric around disputed territorial claims.

These concerns have been heightened in the past year, when Beijing has conducted two major military drills around the island of Taiwan and refused to condemn Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

That invasion has also drawn increased attention to Taiwan as a potential security hotspot in Asia.

Despite major differences with the geopolitical circumstances of Russia and Ukraine, the optics of a seemingly more powerful aggressor launching an attack driven by a vision of unification has increased attention on China's intentions toward Taiwan.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party claims the island as its own, despite never having controlled it, and has vowed to unify it with the mainland, by force if necessary.

The IISS report released Friday, an annual assessment of security in the Asia-Pacific written by experts at the think tank, says there is no evidence that the war in Ukraine has "altered Chinese thinking about the timescale or methodology" for a possible attack on Taiwan.

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"Beijing's view of Taiwan as an internal challenge has shaped its assessment that a Chinese use of force to take back the island would be totally different from the Ukraine war," the report says.

However, Chinese military thinkers had analyzed the implications of Western support for Ukraine and the factors that contributed to Russia's poor military performance, according to the report.

The document added that it was "impossible to determine whether China will use force to take Taiwan at some point in the future," and that Beijing's decision-making would be determined not only by "an assessment of military capability, but also by a consideration of the likely non-military reactions of the U.S. and its allies." including possible economic impacts.

"There is no evidence that China has a fixed timetable for invading Taiwan," the report adds.

Meanwhile, Beijing's rhetoric around Taiwan was one of the main triggers for Japan's growing concern about China, according to the report.

Growing confrontation

According to the report, China continues to develop its "blue water" capabilities to operate on the high seas, far from its ports.

But efforts by the U.S. and its most important regional allies to increase their naval funding and readiness "could facilitate a shift in the naval balance in their favor," the report says.

In recent years, the United States has made concerted efforts to strengthen its security alliances and presence in the region in the face of China's rise.

This has included strengthening trilateral cooperation with its allies, South Korea and Japan, and renewing the Quad security grouping with Australia, Japan and India, widely seen as a counterweight to China's military rise.

Earlier this year, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia agreed to build a combined fleet of elite nuclear submarines.

However, many states in the region prefer to avoid taking sides in the "growing confrontation" between the United States and China, according to the IISS report, which adds that "there is no regional trend towards alignment with the United States," due to economic dependencies and fear of escalation.

Beijing has repeatedly claimed that its People's Liberation Army is a defensive force aimed at safeguarding world peace and development, a point Chinese defense chief Li is expected to stress at the conference, which will also discuss Beijing's vision for regional security.

It is the first time Li Shangfu has attended the conference since taking over as defense minister earlier this year. Li was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 over China's purchase of Russian weapons.

Both he and Austin are scheduled to deliver speeches at the conference, which runs Friday through Sunday.

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