02 June 2008
East Asian Security Strengthened by U.S. Alliances
As a Pacific nation, United States plays “enduring” role in Asia
Washington -- The United States' commitment to East Asian security is strengthened by its relationships with partners and friends, says Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and these alliances provide the foundation of the U.S. security presence.
"For those who worry that Iraq and Afghanistan have distracted the United States from Asia and developments in this region, I would counter that we have never been more engaged with more countries," Gates said May 31 at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. "The United States is a Pacific nation with an enduring role in Asia."
Gates also said that the Asia security policy of any future U.S. president will be based on strong U.S. interests in the region -- interests that will endure regardless of which party occupies the White House after the November presidential election.
Gates was in Singapore to attend the seventh annual International Institute for Strategic Studies' Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security conference named for the hotel where it is held. The conference brought together defense ministers, chiefs of staff and other senior security policymakers from 27 nations.
"America plays many roles in Asia: as an ally, partner and friend; as a routine offshore presence; as a resident power; and as an agent of professionalism and capacity in service to a range of nonmilitary needs, such as disaster response," he said.
In Northeast Asia, alliances with Japan and South Korea are being transformed to fit 21st-century realities. South Korea is assuming greater responsibility for its own defense as the United States reduces its presence, Gates said. And the United States is realigning and refocusing its forces in Japan while cooperating in new areas such as limited missile defense.
Gates, who also stopped in South Korea, Guam and Thailand on a weeklong regional visit, said the United States is extending the tours of U.S. troops serving in South Korea to three years, and, for the first time, permitting troops to bring their families. The United States is relocating and realigning troops in the country in a transition that is expected to take until 2012. At least 23 U.S. facilities, all acquired during the Korean War, have been transferred to the South Korean military as it takes on greater defense responsibilities. Currently, the United States maintains about 28,000 troops on the Korean Peninsula.
In addition to these treaty alliances, the United States also maintains other formal alliances in the region, including in the Philippines and Thailand. Gates said the vital security interaction with both nations adds to or enables each a greater degree of freedom to maneuver.
A significant part of the U.S. security architecture with Asian nations includes training, military professionalism education, transit arrangements, joint exercises and a sharing of strategic perceptions, Gates said. In 2007, the United States participated in a multilateral naval exercise hosted by India. In this year's Cobra Gold exercise, Thailand hosted forces from Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and the United States. Nine nations including China, India and Pakistan were invited as observers, he said.
"The Cobra Gold exercise today no longer resembles what it had been of the past quarter of a century -- a bilateral, mostly conventional set of military exercises with Thailand," Gates said. "This year's exercise focused on peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance -- activities that form a vital part of contemporary security arrangements."
Gates said efforts are under way with China in a series of dialogues on strategic issues to help improve understanding and avoid possible misunderstanding. Gates inaugurated the direct Defense Telephone Link with a call to China's national defense minister, Liang Guanglie. "Far from frozen in a Cold War paradigm, our presence in Asia is designed to meet our mutual challenges in the 21st century," Gates said.
"The foundation of prosperity in this part of the world -- a prosperity that is in turn fueling the defense capacity of Asia's emergent powers -- rests on respect for international norms and a common responsibility to protect common resources even while pursing individual agendas," Gates said.
Globalization has permitted a shared rise in wealth over recent decades, and that achievement rests on openness -- openness of trade, openness of ideas and openness of common areas such as the maritime, space or cyber domains, he said.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has espoused an open regionalism system, which is rules-based and provides its citizens unparalleled opportunity and prosperity, he said. "Without this system and without its rules, tensions can rise quickly when sovereign states compete over resources," he said.
Saying he could not predict exactly how the next U.S. administration will view East Asian security, Gates said certain constant elements will remain part of the Asia policy such as strategic access, freedom of commerce and navigation, and freedom from domination by any "hegemonic force or coalition."
"America's status in Asia rests on long-standing interests and deeply held notions about the basic character of the United States. Projecting outward from our Pacific coastline, the United States has had a cultural, economic, educational, geographic, historical and political presence in Asia since the 19th century," Gates said.
A transcript of Gates' remarks is available on the Defense Department Web site.
