Washington: The United States would continue to remain engaged globally but would do this in a creative and different way, a top Pentagon official said on Thursday.
"We're a global power with global interests. We're going to stay engaged. We're going to keep investing in those relationships. We're going to keep investing and building the partner capability in those nations. But we're going to do it in creative and different ways," Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Michele Flournoy told reporters.
Flournoy said the US would continue to evolve its presence and posture in the Asia-Pacific region, both to deal with challenges that are emerging and opportunities.
"We already have very robust cooperation on ballistic missile defense development with our Japanese partners. They're partners in research and development of systems with us. And we continue to discuss ballistic missile defense with our various partners and allies there," she said.
"I think this is an evolving conversation. I don't think there's a concrete set of plans that define an end point at this point. But it is a matter of discussion with our allies, and we will continue to work with them on these issues," she said in response to a question.
Deputy Secretary of Defence Ashton B Carter said the new defense strategic review document is to rebalance the US force structure and investments towards the Asia-Pacific area, where there are several potential challenges to stability; and to the Middle East, where challenges persist; and towards advanced capabilities to maintain access and power projection, which are relevant globally.
It is also aimed at taking a different approach to force size and structure.
"Obviously, our forces will be somewhat smaller under a smaller budget, but what's important is their shape, a different shape. And the guidance tells us two additional ways to change that shape," he said.
The US, he said, will not retain force structure in the ground forces for large and prolonged stability operations such as have been required in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"This does not mean abandoning COIN or any such thing. But we do not see the US conducting such operations on its own as likely in the future, and in any event we will preserve the know-how and capability to regenerate forces if such a need does arise," Carter said.
"While our forces will still be capable of prevailing in more than one conflict at the same time - I want to make clear that this is not changing - we are continuing to evolve our approach to this capability since the nature of those conflicts has changed," Carter said.
Comments
0 comment