By David Alexander
WASHINGTON, May 30
(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will brief allies on the U.S.
strategic shift toward Asia and will seek to allay concerns that fiscal
uncertainty could undermine Washington's commitment to the effort as he begins
a week-long visit to the region this weekend.
With the
Asia-Pacific region unsettled by renewed tensions over competing sovereignty
claims in the South China Sea, Panetta flies to Hawaii
on Wednesday for briefings with the head of the U.S. Pacific Command before
traveling on to Singapore
for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue.
He later spends
two days apiece in Vietnam
and India, countries that
have become increasingly important to the U.S. push for a rules-based
regional order that would protect freedom of navigation and trade while
resolving conflicts peacefully.
The trip is
Panetta's first to the Asia-Pacific area since the Pentagon issued its new
strategic guidance in January calling for a shift in focus toward the region,
creating "news and buzz" about the concept, a U.S. defense
official said.
"What we're
trying to do with the swing through Asia is to give a comprehensive account to
partners and everyone in the region about what the rebalance to the
Asia-Pacific will mean in practice," the official told a news briefing,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
Panetta also is
likely to address lingering concerns about the U.S.
need to reduce its defense budget and whether Washington will be able to maintain its
commitment to the region despite soaring deficits.
The Pentagon is
under orders to cut planned defense spending by $487 billion over the next
decade. An additional round of cuts due in January will take another $500
billion over a decade unless Congress acts to stop the reductions by raising
revenue or making cuts elsewhere in the U.S. budget
"One of the
things you'll hear the secretary addressing specifically is how the rebalance
will be resourced and the commitment of the United States to the Asia-Pacific
in the long term," the official said.
The Shangri-La
Dialogue brings together senior civilian and military chiefs from nearly 30
Asia-Pacific states to foster security cooperation. Sponsored by the
International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, it was first held in
2002 and it takes its name from the host Singapore hotel.
CONCERN IN CHINA
While President
Barack Obama's administration insists that the shift in focus is not aimed at
any one country, Panetta will have to watch his language in Singapore and Vietnam
to avoid heightening Beijing's concerns that the
renewed U.S. strategic focus
on Asia seeks to contain China's
rise as a global power.
"He's going
to have to be careful about what he says," said Jonathan Pollack, a China analyst
at the Brookings Institution think tank. "It's ... important for the kinds
of message that he wants to send, lest there be triggering responses on the
part of the Chinese."
Pollack noted that
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sparked a spat with China at an ASEAN forum in Vietnam 2010 by
pressing the issue of territorial claims in the South
China Sea.
While a recently
issued U.S. report on China's military power avoided the tendency of
earlier documents "toward hyperventilating about China," Pollack said, the strategic
guidance released in January heightened Beijing's
concerns.
The document
lumped China and Iran
in the same category as potential U.S.
adversaries and also portrayed India
as if it were helping to counterbalance China's military power, he said.
"If you are
trying to elicit China's
involvement to curtail what Iran
is doing, to mention the two of them in the same breath, that clearly garners
attention on the part of Chinese officials," Pollack said. "So words
do count. And ... hopefully he (Panetta) will be careful about what he
says."
DEFENSE PARTNERSHIP
U.S. defense officials said the New Delhi leg of the trip was aimed at deepening defense
ties with India, which was
listed in the strategic guidance in January as a country with which the United States
wants to have a defense partnership.
"India is the
only country we mentioned specifically in the defense strategic guidance as a
partner," the official said. "We're moving to an era in which we
think defense cooperation with India
is just going to be on a steady roll."
Karl Inderfurth, a
South Asia analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said
the mention of India in the
strategic guidance was a signal the United States
wants New Delhi's
help to build stability in the region.
"India got a
shout out in the new strategic guidance that other countries did not," he
said. "The United States
is looking to India for more
than defense trade ... It is looking to India
to contribute as a provider of security in the broader Indian
Ocean region."
Inderfurth, a
former assistant secretary of state for South Asia affairs, said India was
evaluating its capabilities and thinking about possible roles, and was
interested in expanding defense cooperation with the United States.
New
Delhi is likely to do so on its own terms in a way that would ease
any concerns from Beijing
about an anti-China grouping.
Indian officials
will have probing questions for Panetta about Afghanistan, Inderfurth said. India is concerned that a U.S. pullout before Afghan forces are ready to
take over security requirements could destabilize the country, allowing it to
again become a haven for Islamic extremists bent on spreading their influence
in Kashmir.
"They are
very concerned that if the U.S. departs and doesn't do it responsibly ... that
the Afghan security forces will not be up to the challenge, and that they will
be back to a time when a radical Islamic regime is established," he said.
(Editing by Philip
Barbara)
Courtesy: Reuters.com
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