By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 22, 2013 – Asian defense leaders are eager for
U.S. presence and involvement in the region and will “very palpably”
feel the U.S. rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region, Deputy Defense
Secretary Ash Carter said yesterday after a week of meetings there.
Carter visited Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Indonesia;
participated in the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue; and in
Jakarta held bilateral meetings with defense officials from Indonesia,
Singapore and Malaysia.
“I wanted to make two main points to the
audience of Asian defense leaders who are eager for U.S. presence and
eager for U.S. involvement and commitment,” Carter told American Forces
Press Service aboard an Air Force aircraft during his return flight.
The first is that defense leaders there will feel the rebalance to the
Asia-Pacific because “it is large, it is multidimensional, [and] it is
part of the political and economic rebalance that President [Barack]
Obama has emphasized.”
The second point, he said, is that the rebalance is not a zero-sum game with China.
“China is a beneficiary of the U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific region
extending over seven decades. … China’s dynamic and unfettered
opportunity to develop itself on its own terms would not have happened
without the U.S. presence,” the deputy secretary said.
Carter’s
trip occurred during a particularly difficult time with North Korea, as
that nation hurled threats at the United States and its allies after the
United Nations imposed new sanctions after a Feb. 12 North Korean
nuclear test.
During his visit, the deputy secretary said he
wanted North Korea to see an alliance whose capabilities continue to
grow -- “a circle of allies that is being brought closer together in
opposition to them, and stronger American defenses, particularly the
missile defense enhancement that Secretary [Chuck] Hagel announced last
week.”
“That’s what they get for their behavior,” he added.
The Chinese are seeing more concern in the international community, and
more countries in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world turning
to the United States in concern, Carter said. And they’re wondering why
China, “a country that has more influence over North Korea than any
other, can’t or won’t do more to stop the North Koreans,” he said.
Carter stopped first in Japan to meet with senior defense officials and
discuss actions both nations are taking to strengthen their alliance,
he said. These include Japan’s progress in reviewing its National
Defense Program Guidelines so its Self-Defense Forces can work more
closely with U.S. forces as their presence in the region increases.
Other topics included missile defense integration and Japan’s
consideration of buying the F-35 joint strike fighter.
“The Japanese are making very good progress,” Carter said.
In discussions about Japan’s concern over tension with China in the
Senkaku Islands, the deputy secretary reiterated that the islands fall
under U.S. treaty protection and that the United States seeks to make
sure that those involved in such disputes behave calmly and solve
problems through dialogue, not violence.
In South Korea, Carter
visited the Key Resolve military exercise at Command Post TANGO -- for
theater air naval ground operations -- a high-tech bunker that serves as
the Korean theater’s main warfighting headquarters, led by Army Gen.
James D. Thurman.
The Combined Forces Command there includes U.S.
and South Korean forces, along with troops from the United Kingdom,
Australia and other nations.
In the Philippines, Carter said, he
had much to discuss with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Foreign
Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario and the Philippine president’s
executive secretary, Paquito Ochoa.
“The foreign minister will be
in Washington next week, so this gave us the opportunity to discuss the
things he’ll be discussing with Secretary of State [John F.] Kerry,”
Carter said. “He was the Philippine ambassador to the United States
[from 2001 to 2006], so he knows the United States well.”
Del
Rosario was interested and seemed pleased to hear about the momentum the
U.S. rebalance has, and that it will not be affected in any material
way by the budget turmoil in Washington. “It has that much priority,”
Carter said.
The deputy secretary said they also talked about the
strength of and deepening involvement between the Philippines and the
United States in the military-to-military sphere. For the Defense
Department, he added, this means working with the Philippine military as
it approaches its military reform effort, discussing with them the
rotational presence of U.S. forces, and making sure that any areas of
concern they have are being addressed.
One area of concern
involves the USS Guardian, which ran aground Jan. 17 on Tubbataha Reef,
about 70 nautical miles southeast of Palawan in the Philippines.
“The USS Guardian is successfully being removed without any spillage,”
Carter said. “The investigation … is under way, and the results of that
investigation are being fully shared with the Philippine government.”
In Indonesia, the deputy secretary met Defense Minister Purnomo
Yusgiantoro and discussed what has become a burgeoning
military-to-military relationship with that nation.
“We are doing
more and more [with Indonesia], and that has been enabled by their
successful effort to make sure their special forces are reformed and
operate in a way that is fully respectful of human rights,” Carter said.
In the past when the Indonesian army was involved in maintaining
domestic order, there were instances of human rights violations by
military units, he explained.
“Resolving them is, appropriately
for the United States, necessary for us to have a military-to-military
relationship with them, and I’m pleased that they and we are doing our
parts to make that happen,” the deputy secretary added.
In the
Indonesian capital of Jakarta, Carter held a bilateral meeting with
Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen of Singapore, whom he called and old and
close friend of the United States. Singapore is involved in much of the
U.S. rebalance, he noted.
“For example, four littoral combat
ships are beginning rotational deployments to Singapore in early April,”
Carter said. “Secretary of the Navy [Ray] Mabus will be out there to be
part of the welcoming ceremony. And the Singaporeans made a forceful
case for continuing U.S. commitment to the Asia-Pacific region.”
Carter also met with Malaysian Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid. “We
continue to do a lot with Malaysia,” he said, adding that in
Afghanistan, Malaysia specializes in providing medical services to
women.
“Because they are a Muslim country and they have Muslim
women on staff, they are particularly able to do things that Americans
would never be able to do for Afghan women in the medical sphere,” the
deputy secretary said. The United States and Malaysia also are engaged
in military reform efforts and arms sales.
One issue of concern
to the Malaysians, Carter said, is a dispute between Malaysia and the
Philippines over a Malaysian member state called Sabah, on the northern
part of the island of Borneo.
“I expressed the appreciation and
admiration of the United States for the mature way that the Filipino and
Malaysian governments have together dealt with this situation,” he
added, “to try and minimize the regretful loss of life and calm down
this situation.
“It’s a great example of countries coming
together to deal with these complex political situations that could
easily have led to more loss of life and terrorism,” he said.
Also in Jakarta, and a main reason for his visit, Carter participated in
the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue, a large meeting presided
over by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yodhoyono.
“I talked
about the rebalancing there, but I emphasized, being in Southeast Asia,
that as part of the rebalance the United States is putting special
effort into Southeast and South Asia. … We need to be where our friends
and allies are all over Asia,” Carter said.
At the Jakarta
residence of David Carden, U.S. ambassador to the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the deputy secretary met with members of the
ASEAN Committee of Permanent Representatives, the association’s highest
permanent governmental body. The committee consists of ambassadors from
each of the 10 ASEAN member states posted to the ASEAN Secretariat. One
important ASEAN initiatives is formulating a code of conduct in the
South China Sea as a way to peacefully handle disputes, the deputy
secretary said.
“We are supportive of that, and we think it’s a
good thing helping to keep South China Sea islands issues in the
peaceful, nonmilitarized, multilateral channel that the United States
favors,” Carter said. “We think is the right way to deal with these
issues.”
The defense secretary emphasized while in Asia that the
defense ministers there have in Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel someone
who knows the region very well.
“Many of them appreciated that,
because Hagel was one of the founders of another important dialogue out
there -- the Shangri-La Dialogue,” Carter added.
“For 10 years,
he’s been going to Shangri-La as a senator,” he said, “so … he’s not
starting from zero, he’s starting from 99 miles an hour in terms of
being able to deal with this region as a central commitment of the
Department of Defense in this era.”
After leaving Jakarta,
Carter’s first stop in the United States was Joint Base
Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, to thank the airmen,
soldiers, sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and DOD civilians there for
their service.
“I thought it was fitting that we ended up at
Elmendorf-Richardson, because [the troops there] are at the center of
the rebalance,” he said. “They have been heavily deployed -- both air
units and the Army -- from chilly Alaska to the hot Middle East for the
better part of a decade now -- first Iraq and then Afghanistan,” he
added. “Now we are asking them to return to full-spectrum operations
from a counterinsurgency focus and to rebalance their efforts to the
Asia-Pacific.”
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