'US 'can be secure only if Asia is': Austin praises 'new era of security' in Asia-Pacific

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Saturday the Indo-Pacific region remained a “priority” for Washington, saying the United States was secure “only if Asia is”. Austin hailed on Saturday a “new era of security” in the Asia-Pacific region, as Washington strengthens its network of alliances aimed at countering China’s growing military might and influence.

“The United States can be secure only if Asia is secure. We have long maintained our presence in the Indo-Pacific for this very reason. It’s also why we continue to make the investments necessary to meet our commitments to our allies and partners,” he said in a post on X.

The United States can be secure only if Asia is secure.

We have long maintained our presence in the Indo-Pacific for this very reason.

It’s also why we continue to make the investments necessary to meet our commitments to our allies and partners. pic.twitter.com/2KmBuvJccD

— Archive: Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDefAustin) June 1, 2024

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Speaking on the sidelines of the forum after Austin’s speech, Chinese Lieutenant General Jing Jianfeng accused the United States of seeking to build an Asia-Pacific version of NATO to maintain its hegemony in the region.

From Japan to Australia, the United States has been deepening defence ties across the region, ramping up joint military exercises and regularly deploying warships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea – infuriating Beijing. In the past three years, Austin said there had been a “new convergence around nearly all aspects of security” in the Asia-Pacific, where there was a shared understanding of “the power of partnership”.

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Addressing the media, Austin said that this new convergence is producing a stronger, more resilient and more capable network of partnerships and that is defining a new era of security in the Indo-Pacific.

However, it was not “about imposing one country’s will” or “bullying or coercion”, Austin said, in an apparent shot at China, which has increased its sabre-rattling over self-ruled Taiwan and grown more confident in pressing its claims in the South China Sea.

“This new convergence is about coming together and not splitting apart,” Austin said. “It’s about the free choices of sovereign states.”

The Shangri-La Dialogue, a major security forum attended by defence officials from around the world, has become a barometer of US-China relations in recent years. This year’s edition comes a week after China held military drills around self-ruled Taiwan and warned of war over the US-backed island following the inauguration of President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing has described as a “dangerous separatist”.

Taiwan is one of the thorniest disputes in US-China relations. Austin met with his Chinese counterpart Dong Jun on Friday for the first substantive face-to-face talks between the two countries’ defence chiefs in 18 months. China scrapped military communications with the United States in 2022 in response to then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing were further stoked by issues including an alleged Chinese spy balloon that was shot down over US airspace, a meeting between Taiwan’s then-president Tsai Ing-wen and Pelosi’s successor Kevin McCarthy, and American military aid for Taipei

With agency inputs.