US will sharpen ‘military edge’ in Asia, says Carter

SAN DIEGO – The Associated Press

AP Photo

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Sept. 29 that the U.S. will “sharpen our military edge” in Asia and the Pacific in order to remain a dominant power in a region feeling the effects of China’s rising military might.

Carter made the pledge in a speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in port in San Diego.

The Pentagon chief described what he called the next phase of a U.S. pivot to Asia - a rebalancing of American security commitments after years of heavy focus on the Middle East.

His speech, aimed at reassuring allies unsettled by China’s behavior in the South China Sea, came three days after he made remarks at a nuclear missile base in North Dakota about rebuilding the nuclear force. Those comments prompted a strong reaction from the Russian foreign ministry, which issued a statement saying it had interpreted Carter’s statement as a declared intention to lower the threshold for using nuclear weapons.
He said the Pentagon will make its attack submarines more lethal and spend more to build undersea drones that can operate in shallower waters where submarines cannot.

“The United States will continue to sharpen our military edge so we remain the most powerful military in the region and the security partner of choice,” he said.

He added, “We’re going to have a few surprises as well,” describing them only as “leap-ahead investments.”
With a broad complaint that China is “sometimes behaving aggressively,” Carter alluded to Beijing’s building of artificial islands in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

“Beijing sometimes appears to want to pick and choose which principles it wants to benefit from and which it prefers to try to undercut,” he said. “For example, the universal right to freedom of navigation that allows China’s ships and aircraft to transit safely and peacefully is the same right that Beijing criticizes other countries for exercising in the region. But principles are not like that. They apply to everyone, and every nation, equally.”

Carter’s speech was meant to set the scene for a meeting Sept. 30 in Hawaii with his counterparts from the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which focuses mainly on trade issues but in recent years with U.S. encouragement has sought to engage in a range of defense and military issues. The U.S. is not a member of the organization but has sought to use it as a forum for further developing security partnerships amid regional concern about China’s military buildup.