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04 Jun 24. Proposed House spending bill would add more F-35s. A proposed defense spending bill the House of Representatives released Tuesday would fund eight more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in fiscal 2025 than the military originally planned.
The Pentagon’s budget request earlier this year included money to buy 68 F-35s — 42 F-35As for the Air Force, and 13 F-35Bs and 13 F-35Cs for the Navy and Marine Corps.
But the House Appropriations defense subcommittee’s draft spending bill would add two more F-35As to the Air Force’s purchase, and six more F-35Cs, for a total of 76 jets. The number of F-35Bs the Marine Corps would buy would remain unchanged under this appropriations bill.
The plan to increase F-35 purchases in the proposed defense appropriations bill would differ from the House’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act, which would cut the number of F-35 purchases by as much as 20.
The NDAA, which the House Armed Services Committee approved last month, would first cut the Pentagon’s F-35 purchases down to 58, and then prevent the military from accepting delivery of another 10 jets until it certifies several problems with the jet are fixed.
HASC lawmakers are growing impatient with the F-35 program and manufacturer Lockheed Martin over problems such as delays in its Technology Refresh 3 upgrades, which have halted deliveries of the newest jets for nearly a year. HASC staffers told reporters in May that the roughly $1bn saved by cutting the first 10 F-35s would be reinvested to ensure the jets work properly when they roll out of Lockheed’s factory.
The defense appropriations bill would also provide funding for 15 KC-46 Pegasus aircraft, eight MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopters, and 18 F-15EX Eagle II fighters, as the Air Force requested in March. The Air Force had originally expected to buy 48 F-35As and 24 F-15EXs in 2025.
And the appropriations bill would provide the Air Force $120 m to buy two more HH-60W Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopters in 2025. The Air Force has sought to curtail its HH-60W buy and cap it at 75, down from 113, arguing that the helicopters would not be survivable in a future war against an advanced adversary such as China.
Lawmakers would also provide the Air Force $400m to speed up the delivery of Boeing’s E-7 aircraft, known in other countries as the Wedgetail, which is meant to replace the aging E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS.
The appropriations bill also proposes $1.9bn in procurement funds for the B-21 Raider stealth bomber, and $2.7bn in research, development, test and evaluation funds to continue the bomber’s development. Another $2.1 bn in RDT&E funds would go to developing and modernizing the F-35.
The Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance future fighter program would get $3.3 bn for development, in line with the service’s request, and nearly $493 m in RDT&E funds for its Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile.
The Air Force would also receive $3.4 bn to continue developing the LGM-35A Sentinel nuclear missile, which is meant to replace the decades-old Minuteman III. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/C4ISR & Networks)
05 Jun 24. Defense spending bill forces Israel arms transfers, nixes Ukraine aid. The House defense spending panel on Wednesday advanced the first draft of its annual Pentagon funding bill over objections from Democrats, who cited a provision that would block the president’s authority to withhold arms transfers to Israel and a lack of security assistance for Ukraine, among other partisan provisions.
The $833 bn defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2025 would bar the Pentagon from using funds “to withhold, halt, reverse or cancel the delivery of defense articles or defense services” for Israel, and force the president to transfer withheld weapons to the Israeli military within 15 days.
The bill also drops an annual $300m in Ukraine security aid that defense appropriators have provided since 2014; revives an effort to move Mexico from U.S. Northern Command to U.S. Southern Command; and bans the Pentagon from implementing President Joe Biden’s executive orders on climate change.
“Why, after this Congress has repeatedly demonstrated broad bipartisan support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian tyranny, are we considering a bill that fails to fund the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative?” Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday. “In addition to fighting Russian aggression, USAI helps Ukraine integrate with NATO and Western forces, directly supporting our broader national security and defense objectives.”
The Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative allows the Pentagon to place contracts for longer-term military aid for Kyiv. The FY24 defense policy bill Congress passed in December authorized $300m for the initiative through FY25, but that money will not be available next year if appropriators decline to fund it in the spending bill.
Still, $30 m is a small trickle compared to the $13.7bn in the initiative’s funding Congress passed in April as part of a massive foreign aid bill, which included a total $60bn in economic and security assistance for Ukraine.
Assistance for Ukraine has divided the GOP caucus, with members admonishing Democrats for waving Ukrainian flags on the floor after the House passed 311-112 the $60 bn assistance package for Kyiv in April.
The defense spending bill marked up Wednesday also funds several more F-35 fighter jets than the Pentagon requested. It does not provide funding for a second Virginia-class attack submarine. The procurement decisions override parts of the FY25 defense authorization bill the House Armed Services Committee advanced 57-1 in May.
While the authorization bill sought to cut F-35 procurement amid growing frustration with manufacturer Lockheed Martin, defense appropriators sought to buy eight more of the fighter jets than the Pentagon requested. Defense appropriators also ignored the Armed Services Committee’s authorization for $1 bn in incremental funding to procure a second attack submarine in FY25.
“A Virginia-class submarine is a big-ticket item, so obviously it’s a much bigger deal than $300 m in Ukraine assistance,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama who supports Ukraine aid, told Defense News on Tuesday.
Israel and Gaza
Democrats also denounced the bill’s new language banning the president from withholding weapons transfers to Israel, as well as the return of several other “harmful policy riders” Republicans unsuccessfully sought to include in the FY24 spending bill, which Congress passed 286-134 in March.
“Instead of building on the bipartisan conclusion to the fiscal year 2024 appropriations process, the fiscal year 2025 defense appropriations bill includes the same outrageous policy riders that were rejected by Congress only two months ago,” Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the defense spending panel, said in a statement Tuesday.
McCollum criticized the provision forcing the president to transfer weapons to Israel in a Democratic summary accompanying the bill. “No other country has carte blanche on the use of their military assistance from the United States,” her office wrote.
The House in May passed a separate bill in a 224-187 vote with more stringent language intended to undo Biden’s hold on a single shipment of roughly 3,500 air-to-ground munitions for Israel. The last president to publicly withhold weapons shipments to Israel was Ronald Reagan in 1982 after seeing pictures of civilians killed in Lebanon.
Biden said he withheld the shipment in April, which includes 500- and 2,000-pound bombs, out of concern Israel would use them in Rafah, where more than half of the Gaza Strip’s population have fled since the Israeli campaign against the militant group Hamas started in October. Nonetheless, he has approved several other arms transfers for Israel.
Despite warnings from the White House, Israel proceeded with its Rafah offensive, displacing roughly 1 m Palestinians and further curtailing humanitarian aid deliveries.
In addition to the bill’s annual $500 m in aid for Israeli missile defenses, the FY25 legislation provides $80 m above the president’s budget request for anti-tunneling cooperation with the U.S. and another $55m above the budget request for counter-drone development, including “directed energy and laser technology cooperation.”
The State Department spending bill for FY25, which the foreign aid panel advanced Tuesday, also includes Israel’s annual $3.3 bn in foreign military financing. And the foreign aid bill Congress passed in April includes another $14 bn in Israel military aid.
Both the FY25 Pentagon and State Department spending bills ban funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which delivers humanitarian assistance in the Gaza Strip, drawing further ire from McCollum.
“According to a March report from the World Food Program, nearly half the population — over 1 m people — have completely exhausted their food supplies,” she said Wednesday. “Palestinian civilians, many of them children, are struggling with catastrophic hunger and starvation.”
Other policy riders Democrats oppose include moving jurisdiction of U.S. military operations with Mexico to Southern Command — a bid that failed last year. Calvert and Republicans argue that moving Mexico to Southern Command would better enable counter-fentanyl trafficking operations against Mexican drug cartels.
Additionally, the bill would ban the Pentagon from using funds to implement Biden’s climate executive orders, including one that would prevent the Defense Department — the world’s largest institutional fossil fuel emitter — from disclosing carbon emissions.
(Source: Defense News)
04 Jun 24. House defense spending bill nixes funding for second Virginia sub. The House’s annual Pentagon spending bill only funds the procurement of one Virginia-class attack submarine for fiscal 2025 instead of two vessels as it has in previous years.
The draft spending bill, released Tuesday, overrides legislation the House Armed Services Committee advanced last month, which authorized partial funding for a second Virginia-class submarine. Instead, defense appropriators in the House have sided with the Navy, which requested funding for just one attack submarine this year citing production delays amid industrial base constraints.
“We have to rebuild the industrial base in order for us to build submarines,” House defense appropriations chairman Ken Calvert, R-Calif., told Defense News. “I want more submarines. But in order for us to get there, we have to rebuild the industrial base to get the necessary workforce to build the submarines. So we’re focusing on fixing the problem in order for us to build more submarines.”
The decision comes despite intense pressure from a large, bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn. They have lobbied defense appropriators to fund two submarines, arguing that only funding one submarine would adversely affect companies further down the supply chain.
“House Republicans’ first take at the defense appropriations FY25 bill will never become law,” Courtney said in a statement. “Aside from its hyper-partisan policy riders, it does not reflect the stated need of combatant commanders, the [FY25 National Defense Authorization Act], which advanced 57-1, and the will of 133 Democrats and Republicans who requested steady Virginia-class funding.”
The defense appropriations bill allocates $3.6bn for a Virginia-class submarine as well as $3.7bn in advance procurement funding to continue buying long-lead time materials for future attack submarines. The Navy hopes that the advance procurement funding will sustain vendors in the meantime.
But, Courtney argued, the bill “also does nothing to support the supply chain companies that do not receive advanced procurement funding, leaving many suppliers in the industrial base uncertain about future business.”
Courtney is the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee’s seapower panel, and his Connecticut district includes General Dynamics Electric Boat, which makes the Virginia-class submarines.
The Armed Services Committee authorized $1bn in incremental funding for a second Virginia-class vessel in its FY25 National Defense Authorization Act, which the House is scheduled to vote on next week. That money will not be available for industry unless congressional appropriators opt to include it in their spending legislation.
Courtney and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., recently led 131 other lawmakers in a letter to defense appropriators beseeching them to fund two Virginia-class submarines against the Pentagon’s wishes.
“Preserving a consistent production schedule is essential for shipyard and industrial base stability, and to meet the Navy’s operational requirements,” the lawmakers wrote in a May letter to Calvert and Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., the panel’s top Democrat.
While industry works to overcome production delays stemming from labor shortages and lingering pandemic-related supply chain shocks, the Navy assesses that it needs to build two Virginia-class vessels and one Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine to meet its fleet requirements.
The AUKUS agreement, in which the U.S. will transfer at least three and as many as five attack submarines to Australia in the next decade, would require a production boost of 2.3 to 2.5 Virginia-class vessels per year, on average.
The $883bn defense spending bill includes $31.6bn in the shipbuilding budget to procure four battle force ships.
It includes another $4bn in funding to continue bolstering the submarine industrial base. Congress allocated another $3.3bn in submarine industrial base funding when it passed its massive foreign aid bill in April. The Senate is expected to mark up its version of the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act next week, and senators have not yet released their FY25 defense spending bill. (Source: Defense News Early Bird/Defense News)
04 Jun 24. House lawmakers propose $1.3bn for Pentagon innovation. House lawmakers want to allocate more than $1.3bn in fiscal year 2025 toward Pentagon initiatives such as the Defense Innovation Unit — part of a continued push from Congress to field commercial technology at a faster clip.
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee’s draft of FY25 military spending legislation, released June 4, would add more than $500m for DIU initiatives to quickly deliver capabilities that meet urgent needs from combatant commands and the services. The bill would also expand access to classified facilities for the innovation hub and the non-traditional companies it works with.
Another $400m would support a Pentagon effort to fast-track technology from small business to military users, known as Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies, or APFIT. Congress provided $300m for the project in fiscal 2024, which funded capabilities including a mobile communications gateway for the Navy and optical clocks for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The bill, which the committee is slated to debate June 5, would continue a campaign from House appropriators to ensure that the Department of Defense has more resources to back up its stated objective to better leverage innovation in the private sector.
In FY24, a provision from the defense panel calling for an $800m increase to DIU appropriations made it into law. Along with providing a financial boost, the legislation gave the organization more authority to drive DoD’s innovation fielding efforts.
At the Pentagon, DIU’s influence has grown in recent years. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last year elevated the unit to report directly to his office and named Doug Beck, a former Apple executive, to lead it.
Beck now sits on the Deputy’s Innovation Steering Group, which oversees DoD efforts to rapidly field technology to address high-need operational problems. DIU is also playing a key role in Replicator — an effort to field thousands of drones by next summer and develop a process for quickly delivering capabilities to military users.
DIU is working now to craft a spending plan for the funding it received in FY24 which, due to prolonged budget deliberations, came more than five months into the fiscal year.
The organization plans to distribute the money across four primary buckets: accelerating existing programs, launching new ones, supporting projects housed within other Defense Department innovation organizations and addressing some of the challenges commercial companies face as they try to work with DOD. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
03 Jun 24. Brown Emphasizes Role of Partnerships in Addressing Global Challenges. Collaboration across agencies and with allies is critical to the Defense Department’s success as the national security landscape becomes increasingly complex, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., said today.
Speaking at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition’s Global Impact Forum in Washington, Brown said that throughout his nearly four decades in uniform he has seen the vital role collaboration plays in solving complex diplomatic, information and economic challenges that often accompany military challenges.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with our allies and partners,” he said. “I’m a big believer in collaboration. I know that we cannot do all we do as a military by ourselves, and the value of our partnerships with the interagency, the value of with our allies are really so important.”
Key to maintaining strong collaboration is a deliberate approach to building bonds and working together on critical issues, Brown said.
“It’s all about relationships,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’ve actually gone through the steps, worked together, built those relationships.”
He added that he values the varied perspectives that come from across agencies and from allies and partners.
“There will be some areas that we probably see a little bit different, which is okay,” he said. “That friction actually helps us to identify areas of risk and things that we need to be focused on to be able to move forward and help us look at things with our eyes a little wider open because of the dialogue that we have.”
Those relationships are especially critical today, Brown said, as the global security landscape becomes increasingly complex and interconnected.
He noted that the 2022 National Defense Strategy identifies key challenges posed by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and violent extremists.
“All five of them are active at the moment and, in some respects, working together,” Brown said. “You see that particularly when you look at what’s happening in Ukraine. Russia has invaded, unprovoked, into a neighboring country. There is some support from the People’s Republic of China. Iran is providing capabilities, as well as North Korea.”
Meanwhile, he said, violent extremist organizations continue to operate around the globe.
“When you think about that, it does make the world more complex,” Brown said. “But what I will also tell you is the dialogue among our allies and partners has increased.”
He said collaboration among NATO allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region, especially, has grown considerably in recent years. He added that the United States’ leadership is critical in maintaining these ties.
“When I talk to our allies and partners, they often want to know what we’re going to do,” Brown said. “And they will step up, as well, but we’ve got to make sure that we kind of set the path and the vector of where we see things going, but also listen to them, as well.
“They’re stepping up, and they are very interested in addressing the security challenges that we often talk about,” he said. (Source: U.S. DoD)
01 Jun 24. Statement from Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on Historic Japan-ROK Agreement. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III issued the following statement today after Japan and the Republic of Korea announced new agreements to strengthen their bilateral defense relationship, including measures to support operational safety and lines of communication:
“I welcome this important announcement by Japan and the Republic of Korea, and I applaud the historic leadership by Minister Kihara and Minister Shin. Stronger bilateral cooperation between each of our countries helps advance trilateral cooperation among all of our countries. I look forward to meeting with Minister Kihara and Minister Shin in Singapore to further our momentum in support of the new era of trilateral partnership inaugurated at the Camp David Summit in August 2023.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
31 May 24. Austin Emphasizes Open Lines of Communication Between U.S., China Militaries. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III emphasized the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication at multiple levels between the United States and China during his first meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun.
The two met today in Singapore on the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue to discuss U.S.-China defense relations, as well as regional and global security issues.
The secretary expressed concern about recent provocative activity by China’s army around the Taiwan Strait, and he reiterated that China should not use Taiwan’s political transition — part of a normal, routine democratic process — as a pretext for coercive measures.
The United States remains committed to its longstanding “One China” policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances.
The secretary also reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Austin underscored the importance of respect for the high seas’ freedom of navigation that is guaranteed under international law, especially in the South China Sea.
“The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate safely and responsibly wherever international law allows,” he said.
He also discussed Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine and China’s role in supporting Russia’s defense industrial base.
The secretary also expressed concerns about recent provocations from North Korea, including its direct contributions to Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine.
Today’s meeting follows the secretary’s April 16 video teleconference with his Chinese counterpart. Defense Department officials said they will continue active discussions with Chinese officials about future engagements between defense and military officials at multiple levels.
A senior defense official who was present at the 75-minute meeting between the defense leaders, characterized the secretary’s discussions as clear, direct, candid, firm and professional.
Austin said he was concerned about China’s coercive behavior against the Philippines, emphasizing the U.S. commitment to its ally is “ironclad,” the official said.
He also expressed concerns regarding China’s support for Russia’s defense sector, telling China’s defense minister that if it continues, the United States and its allies will have to take further measures, the official said.
Austin also told the defense minister that China’s growing nuclear, space and cyber development of capabilities are a concern to the United States, according to the official. (Source: U.S. DoD)
31 May 24. Endorsing a Statement of Principles for Indo-Pacific Defense Industrial Base Collaboration. Today, the United States endorsed a Statement of Principles for Indo-Pacific Defense Industrial Base Collaboration following extensive consultations with U.S. allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific region and around the world, including the recent Maluhia Talks at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“Together with our friends in the region, we’re breaking down national barriers and better integrating our defense industries,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said at the 2024 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. “We’re also working together to fortify the shared capacity of the defense industrial bases of our allies and partners. That’s why so many countries—including the United States—are endorsing a Statement of Principles today to strengthen the resilience of the region’s defense industrial bases,” which will benefit security and stability in this region and beyond.
Statement of Principles for Indo-Pacific Defense Industrial Base Collaboration
Recent global challenges and the current security environment have highlighted the importance of defense industrial resilience. In adopting this statement of principles, the participants endeavor to pursue collaborative actions, bilaterally and multilaterally and in accordance with national policies, to enhance our shared defense industrial resilience.
The following principles will guide these collaborative actions among likeminded participants:
- Ensuring shared defense industrial resilience is vital to the continued regional security, economic security, and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific.
- Strengthening defense industrial resilience requires collaborative action to expand industrial base capability, capacity, and workforce; increase supply chain resilience; promote defense innovation; improve information sharing; encourage standardization; reduce barriers to cooperation; and otherwise mitigate potential vulnerabilities and facilitate collaboration.
- Optimizing collaboration requires accounting for the needs, capabilities, and comparative advantages of participants’ industrial bases consistent with free and fair market competition and protection of intellectual property.
- Conducting collaborative action will not be limited to governments, but also include industry, capital providers, academia, and other forms of partnership.
- Fostering further dialogue is needed to promote collaboration and increase shared defense industrial resilience.
Background
Today’s announcement follows the January 2024 release of the Department of Defense’s National Defense Industrial Base Strategy (NDIS), which identified engagement with allies and partners to expand global defense production as a key line of effort toward advancing resilient supply chains. The NDIS states that the Department “must work with allies and partners through both multilateral and bilateral agreements to boost defense production, innovation, and overall capability.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
31 May 24. US targets enablers of Iran’s drone production in sanctions action. The U.S. on Friday issued sanctions targeting entities it accused of enabling Iran’s drone program, in Washington’s latest action seeking to disrupt the production and proliferation of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used by Russia against Ukraine.
“Today’s action reinforces our commitment to disrupt Iran’s production and proliferation of deadly UAVs that continue to be used by Russia against Ukraine and by regional terrorist proxies against our troops,” U.S. Treasury Department Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in a statement.
“Treasury will continue to impose costs on those who seek to procure the components Iran needs for its UAV programs and enable the shipment of these weapons to destabilizing actors around the world.”
Iran has supplied thousands of Shahed kamikaze drones to Russia throughout its invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. They have been used to exhaust Ukrainian air defences and hit infrastructure far from the front lines.
The Treasury said it imposed sanctions on four entities that have procured critical parts for Iran’s drone program as well as an executive of Iran Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO), a subsidiary of Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).
The Treasury said Afshin Khajeh Fard, the chief of IAIO, oversees its efforts to produce drones and missiles.
Friday’s action freezes any of their U.S. assets and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions. (Source: Reuters)
31 May 24. Joint Staff J-6 Summit Strengthens Collaboration With Combatant Commands. The Joint Staff J-6 hosted its annual Command, Control, Communications and Computers, dubbed C4, Cyber Global Summit at the Pentagon last week, convening representatives from the 11 combatant commands, Defense Information Systems Agency, Office of the Department of Defense Chief Information Officer, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, and Joint Staff to further efforts in enhancing the Joint Force’s C4/Cyber capabilities.
Designed to underscore recent guidance from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., to the Joint Staff, the summit included discussions that spanned from readiness of the joint force and risk mitigation to modernizing and aggressively leading with new concepts and approaches in preparation for the future.
Army Lt. Gen. David T. Isaacson, director for C4/Cyber and chief information officer for J-6, Joint Staff, emphasized the value of collaboration between the Joint Staff, combatant commands, military services and intelligence community in accelerating joint force C4/Cyber design and development. Largely focused on advocating for the warfighter, the Joint Staff aims to balance the needs of the readiness-focused combatant commands with requirements of the military services, which have a responsibility to organize, train and equip.
“As members of the Joint Staff, we assist the Chairman in accomplishing his global integration responsibilities,” Isaacson said. “Forums such as this one allow us to level set with the combatant commands and focus on things we can tackle collectively.
“Our adversaries are modernizing; they’re not defending their homelands differently than we,” he said. “They’re buying more capability, not less; they’re buying smaller capability, not larger; they’re going faster than ever before, not slower; and they’re maneuverable and not predictable. And because of this, we want to maximize our strategic partnerships and optimize capabilities that allow the joint force to defend, deter, modernize and prevail in conflict when necessary.”
The summit focused on the current and future state of C4/Cyber and aimed to support the development of advanced operating approaches, expedite the acquisition of innovative capabilities to address critical gaps, and position the joint force to maintain competitive advantages. Keynote speakers further stressed the need to provide agile, dependable, technologically advanced and combat-ready C4/Cyber capabilities to the joint force rapidly and on a large scale to build a resilient defense ecosystem and achieve global integration objectives. (Source: U.S. DoD)
01 Jun 24. U.S. defence chief shifts focus to China risks; Beijing bristles.
- Summary
- Pentagon head says Asia security is a U.S. priority
- Ukraine, Gaza conflicts risks drawing attention away from China
- U.S. seeks to grow alliances in Asia, including Philippines
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tried to refocus attention on China’s threat in the Asia-Pacific on Saturday, seeking to alleviate concerns that conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have distracted from America’s security commitments in the region.
Austin, who was speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, met his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, on Friday in a bid to cool friction over issues from Taiwan to China’s military activity in the South China Sea.
There has been increasing concern that Washington’s focus on helping Ukraine counter Russia’s invasion and support for Israel’s war in Gaza, while trying to ensure that the conflict does not spread, has taken away attention from the Indo-Pacific.
“Despite these historic clashes in Europe and the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific has remained our priority theatre of operations,” Austin said in his speech, which appeared aimed at underlining the administration’s legacy in the region as President Joe Biden’s first term in office nears its end.
Biden is running for re-election in November against former President Donald Trump.
“Let me be clear: The United States can be secure only if Asia is secure,” Austin said. “That’s why the United States has long maintained our presence in this region.”
Austin underscored the importance of alliances in the region.
“And … peaceful resolution of disputes through dialogue and not coercion or conflict. And certainly not through so-called punishment,” Austin said, taking a shot at China.
The speech took aim at Beijing’s actions in the region, including the South China Sea, without naming China for the most part.
In response, Chinese Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng said the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy was intended “to create division, provoke confrontation and undermine stability”.
“It only serves the selfish geopolitical interests of the U.S. and runs counter to the trend of history and the shared aspirations of regional countries for peace, development and win-win cooperation,” said Jing, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China’s Central Military Commission.
During their meeting on Friday, Dong warned Austin that the U.S. should not interfere in China’s affairs with Taiwan, defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian told reporters. China claims the democratically governed island as its own territory.
Some U.S. officials say Beijing has become more emboldened in recent years, recently launching what it described “punishment” drills around Taiwan, sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks after Lai Ching-te was inaugurated as Taiwan’s president.
MILITARY SPENDING
The United States has provided tens of bns of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since the invasion, and the U.S. Congress appropriated $61 bn more last month. It has also continued to arm Israel, and the same bill provides $26 bn to in additional support for that country.
In a later session, South Korean defence minister Shin Won-sik declined to say whether his country would change its laws, which prohibit arms exports to nations in conflicts, to more directly provide aid to Ukraine.
In the last year, South Korea has transferred artillery ammunition to the United States and signed historically large arms deals with Poland; both of those countries provide security assistance to Ukraine.
About $8bn in U.S. funding is set aside for countering China in the Indo-Pacific as part of the supplemental funding bill passed by lawmakers.
Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr on Friday denounced illegal, coercive and aggressive actions in the South China Sea, a disputed ocean territory that China has been flooding with coastguard ships in recent months.
The Philippines, a sprawling archipelago with strong historical ties to the United States and close geographical proximity to China, is at the centre of an intensifying power struggle between Washington and Beijing.
Austin said the harassment faced by the Philippines was dangerous and reiterated that the United States’ mutual defence treaty with Manila was iron clad. He said the aim was for tensions between Beijing and Manila not to spiral out of control.
“America will continue to play a vital role in the Indo-Pacific, together with our friends across the region that we share and care so much about,” Austin said.
Jing, the Chinese general, said these alliances contributed to instability in the region.
“It is natural for neighbours to bicker sometimes, but we need to resolve disagreements through dialogue and consultation rather than inviting wolves into our house and playing with fire,” he said. (Source: Reuters)
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