Carter to visit East Asia as US tries to revive 'pivot' strategy
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will be making his first official trip to Japan and South Korea this week to revive the so-called Asia “pivot” strategy amid China’s rapid military modernization.
Carter will leave from Washington on Monday to Japan, and later to South Korea for talks aimed at "strengthening and modernizing America's alliances in Northeast Asia," according to a Pentagon statement.
He will also meet US troops and their families who are stationed in those countries. There are about 49,000 US military personnel in Japan and about 28,500 in South Korea.
The Pentagon chief will also visit India and Singapore in May, and he may travel to China later in the year.
Carter was a supporter of what the Obama administration calls its “rebalance” to Asia while he was serving as the deputy secretary of defense.
“We also see great opportunities: Among them, to shift the great weight of the Department of Defense, both intellectual and physical, that has been devoted to Iraq and Afghanistan, to the Asia-Pacific region, where America will continue to play its seven-decade-old pivotal stabilizing role into the future,” Carter said in May before he became defense secretary in February.
The Obama administration is trying to keep its focus on a widely advertised shift to Asia, which it has pursued since 2011. The White House argues that no region is more important to the United States’ long-term interests than Asia.
A new assessment released Thursday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues that the Obama administration’s Asia pivot has not been successful and American power and influence in the region has been declining.
Observers believe America’s efforts to increase its presence in the Asia-Pacific region is aimed at containing China.
China accuses Washington of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.
AHT/HRJ
US okays new arms sales to Israel, Saudi Arabia worth over $15.5 billion
Yemen’s Ansarullah warns US of aircraft carrier deployment in Red Sea
Attack on Iran would severely backfire: European think-tank
Iran, US to hold nuclear talks in Istanbul: Report
Israeli strikes kill at least one, injure several people in south Lebanon
VIDEO | Imam Khomeini at Iran’s Neauphle-le-Château: Revolutionary influence in France
VIDEO | Press TV's news headlines
Israel holds 766 Palestinian bodies, nearly half since October 2023: Report
VIDEO | A new lease of life
Jordan says will not be ‘battleground or launchpad’ against Iran
Iran rules out enriched uranium transfer as part of nuclear deal
PressTV NEWSLETTER
now
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
