US Secretary of Defense Secretary Robert Gates headed to Asia for a final time as Pentagon chief on Tuesday, looking to reassure allies that the US is committed to regional security despite tightening defense budgets and his own imminent departure.
Gates, due to leave his post at the end of this month, will meet his counterparts from Australia, China and other countries at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this weekend, before traveling to Brussels for meetings with NATO officials.
With China boosting its level of representation at the Shangri-La security forum, Gates’ meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie (梁光烈) will be watched closely for signs of further warming in civilian-military relations between the two countries after a series of high-level visits this year.
However, Gates’ trip is mainly an effort by the administration of US President Barack Obama to show the US remains committed to the region despite planned cutbacks in military spending and a change in the top leadership at the US Department of Defense.
“The critical message is that even as we look at potential budget reductions, there is no slackening of the US commitment to our presence in Asia,” Gates told reporters during a stop in Hawaii. “We are a Pacific nation ... We will remain engaged and we will continue to build relationships with friends, partners and allies in Asia.”
A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gates would discuss the commitment senior US leaders have shown to Asia, noting repeated trips to the region by Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Gates.
The official said Gates would underscore that Obama’s choice to succeed him — CIA Director Leon Panetta — will maintain a “continuity in US policy” and that the US approach has been “consistent for a long time in the region and does not depend on individuals.”
In his meeting with Liang, Gates will be looking to deepen the US-China strategic security dialogue initiated between the two countries at his suggestion during a trip to Beijing in January.
The strategic security dialogue is a forum for military and civilian officials in the US and Chinese governments to discuss sensitive issues like nuclear missile defense, space and cyber warfare.
The two sides held a meeting of the security dialogue during a broader bilateral gathering in Washington earlier this month. Gates would like to expand the forum.
US-China military ties remain fragile. The two sides only recently resumed military-to-military contacts after a break of nearly a year caused by a US$6.4 billion US arms deal with Taiwan.
Many in the US Senate are now urging Obama to authorize a new sale of F-16 jet fighters to Taiwan. People’s Liberation Army Chief of General Staff General Chen Bingde (陳炳德) said during a recent visit to Washington that further US arms sales to Taiwan would affect military ties between the two countries.
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