{"id":81641,"date":"2016-09-30T03:41:34","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T07:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81641"},"modified":"2016-09-30T04:37:30","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T08:37:30","slug":"defence-secretary-us-will-sharpen-military-edge-asia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/30\/defence-secretary-us-will-sharpen-military-edge-asia\/","title":{"rendered":"Defence secretary: US will sharpen ‘military edge’ in Asia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE<\/a>
FILE PHOTO: Defence Secretary Ash Carter thanked his troops and sailors for their active participation in the Philipine-US Exercise “Balikatan” and reiterated the significance of their presence in the region.\u00a0(Photo: U.S. Department of Defense\/Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SAN DIEGO\u2014Defence Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday the U.S. will \u201csharpen our military edge\u201d in Asia and the Pacific in order to remain a dominant power in a region feeling the effects of China’s rising military might.<\/p>\n

Carter made the pledge in a speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in port in San Diego.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon chief described what he called the next phase of a U.S. pivot to Asia\u2014a rebalancing of American security commitments after years of heavy focus on the Middle East.<\/p>\n

His speech, aimed at reassuring allies unsettled by China’s behaviour in the South China Sea, came three days after he made remarks at a nuclear missile base in North Dakota about rebuilding the nuclear force. Those comments prompted a strong reaction from the Russian foreign ministry, which issued a statement saying it had interpreted Carter’s statement as a declared intention to lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

He said the Pentagon will make its attack submarines more lethal and spend more to build undersea drones that can operate in shallower waters where submarines cannot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States will continue to sharpen our military edge so we remain the most powerful military in the region and the security partner of choice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe’re going to have a few surprises as well,\u201d describing them only as \u201cleap-ahead investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a broad complaint that China is \u201csometimes behaving aggressively,\u201d Carter alluded to Beijing’s building of artificial islands in disputed areas of the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeijing sometimes appears to want to pick and choose which principles it wants to benefit from and which it prefers to try to undercut,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, the universal right to freedom of navigation that allows China’s ships and aircraft to transit safely and peacefully is the same right that Beijing criticizes other countries for exercising in the region. But principles are not like that. They apply to everyone, and every nation, equally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter’s speech was meant to set the scene for a meeting Friday in Hawaii with his counterparts from the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which focuses mainly on trade issues but in recent years with U.S. encouragement has sought to engage in a range of defence and military issues. The U.S. is not a member of the organization but has sought to use it as a forum for further developing security partnerships amid regional concern about China’s military buildup.<\/p>\n

Carter has described Pentagon efforts to execute a \u201cpivot\u201d to Asia by shifting, or rebalancing, U.S. forces and attention toward the Asia-Pacific region after a decade and a half of Mideast-focused strategies and operations.<\/p>\n

In April, he said he was putting \u201cthe best people and platforms forward to the Asia-Pacific\u201d by increasing the number of U.S. military personnel in the region and by sending and stationing advanced weapons system there. He said that includes F-22 and F-35 stealth fighter jets, P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, continuous deployments of B-2 and B-52 strategic bombers and the newest surface warfare ships like the amphibious assault ship USS America.<\/p>\n

Among the Asia problems that have arisen for the Pentagon since Carter last met with the region’s defence ministers is a sudden and steep deterioration in relations with the Philippines.<\/p>\n

When Carter visited the Philippines in April, he praised the strength of the partnership. He said his visit had inaugurated \u201ca major new era in a longstanding alliance.\u201d He was referring to the U.S.-Philippines Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement. \u201cI’m proud to say this alliance is as close as it’s been in years.\u201d<\/p>\n

That seeming closeness took a sharp downturn when Rodrigo Duterte was elected president in June. In early September, President Barack Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte after the Philippine leader publicly called him a \u201cson of a bitch.\u201d Later, Duterte said he regretted the comment. And just this week, Duterte said joint military exercises of Filipino and American troops scheduled for next week will be the last such drills, although his foreign secretary quickly said the decision was not final. Duterte said the Philippines will maintain its military alliance with the United States because they share a 65-year-old mutual defence treaty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would serve notice to you now that this will be the last military exercise,\u201d Duterte said Wednesday. \u201cJointly, Philippines-U.S., the last one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, Carter said in his speech Thursday that the relationship with the Philippines is \u201cironclad.\u201d<\/p>\n

As host of Friday’s meeting in Hawaii of defence ministers of the Associated of Southeast Asian Nations, Carter is expected to have at least informal interaction with Philippine Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN DIEGO\u2014Defence Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday the U.S. will \u201csharpen our military edge\u201d in Asia and the Pacific in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":74349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,17],"tags":[12363,2129,420,10040,330,343,10176],"class_list":["post-81641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-w","tag-ash-carter","tag-asia","tag-china","tag-defence","tag-military","tag-philippines","tag-united-states-of-america","mauthors-robert-burns","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}