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Esper's Indo-Pacific Trip Highlights U.S. Emphasis on Alliances

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America's network of alliances is its greatest combat advantage, and nowhere is that more important than in the Indo-Pacific region, which Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper has called America's ''priority theater.''

Esper is making his second trip in the three months to the region, visiting South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Men and women sift dirt looking for Vietnam War-era remains.
POW/MIA Recovery Mission
A Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recovery team sifts through dirt during a recovery mission in Vietnam’s Lang Son province, Oct. 29, 2019. For more than two decades, the United States has conducted joint field activities with the governments of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to recover the remains of missing Americans.
Credit: Air Force Staff Sgt. Rusty Frank
VIRIN: 191029-F-YU668-0013

The secretary will hear firsthand from allies and partners on their concerns and their progress and what the United States can do to strengthen cooperation.

The trip also highlights the U.S. commitment to partnerships both old and new. The United States signed a treaty with Siam – now Thailand – in 1837. Today, U.S. and Thai service members operate along with many other nations in the annual Cobra Gold exercises. They have also cooperated in regional humanitarian relief operations.

Relations with Vietnam are relatively new, resuming in the 1990s, and are getting closer. The United States dropped its arms embargo against the one-time enemy in 2014, and the improvement in relations was personified by the port visit of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in 2018.

Sailors wearing diving gear talk on the deck of a boat.
Joint Traning
U.S. and Thai navy sailors prepare to conduct a joint dive exercise off the coast of Pattaya, Thailand, while aboard the Military Sealift Command Safeguard-class salvage ship USNS Salvor during Exercise Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training Thailand, June 6, 2019.
Credit: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Mortensen
VIRIN: 190606-N-XK398-1074
Thai soldier runs from a helicopter to join crouching U.S. soldiers during an air assault training mission.
Air Assault Training
A Thai soldier moves to pull security with his U.S. counterparts during an air assault training mission in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province as part of Exercise Hanuman Guardian, Feb. 5, 2019.
Credit: Army Staff Sgt. Samuel Northrup
VIRIN: 190205-A-GJ352-0117

In addition to Thailand, the U.S. treaty allies in the Pacific are South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. Partners in the region include India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and many others.

Maintaining alliances and making new partners is the second line of effort in the U.S National Defense Strategy. The poster child for this is the defeat-ISIS coalition that the United States put together in response to the rise of the Islamic State group in 2014. There are now 80 nations and entities involved in that effort.

The National Defense Strategy is based on the return of great power competition. China and Russia are the two greatest threats.

China, with its fast-growing economy, is the greater threat. It’s investing in China’s People's Liberation Army – which is not a national army, but the military force of the Chinese Communist Party – and modernizing forces, improving training and fielding new capabilities.

A small inflatable boat carries several sailors to a training vessel for a training exercise.
Training Drill
Royal Thai Navy sailors approach a training vessel on a rigid hull inflatable boat during a visit, board, search and seizure training drill as part of a maritime exercise, Sept. 5, 2019. The exercise, co-led by the U.S. and Royal Thai navies, includes maritime forces from the U.S. and all 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states.
Credit: Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher A. Veloicaza
VIRIN: 190905-N-FV739-0008

These military capabilities – artificial intelligence, hypersonic missiles, aircraft carriers and more – are designed specifically with the U.S. military in mind. The Chinese studied American military doctrine and operations. Seeing the U.S. deploying to Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Enduring Freedom, they concluded that the U.S. ability to deploy anywhere in the world and supply the forces, is America’s biggest edge. Part of that is the alliance system.

China's response is to build islands in the South and East China Seas to close sea lines of communication. They deployed missiles with stand-off capabilities that would threaten task forces that approach. They have stolen technologies and plans for advanced weaponry.

The Chinese President Xi Jinping has a stated goal of military supremacy by 2050.

But the Chinese military strategy is part of a whole-of-government approach. They use diplomacy, political clout and economic policies in conjunction with military power. The Chinese ''One Belt, One Road'' initiative is a $1 trillion effort to change the current international system that has served the Indo-Pacific so well since 1945, to one that centers everything on Beijing.

Thai Marines wade ashore from a rubber landing craft. The lead Marine aims a rifle.
Cobra Gold
Royal Thai Marines storm a beach during an amphibious assault exercise as part of Exercise Cobra Gold at Hat Yao Beach, Sattahip, Thailand, Feb. 16, 2019.
Credit: Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Matthew J. Bragg
VIRIN: 190216-M-DP650-0111

At the heart of the U.S. strategy is that America is a Pacific power, also. The Esper trip highlights that. The secretary will meet with officials from South Korea to underline America's long-standing guarantees to that nation in the face of North Korean aggression.

In Thailand, Esper will build on almost two centuries of amity to increase cooperation and interoperability between the two nations.

In the Philippines, Esper will discuss efforts to defeat terrorist groups that threaten the government.

In Vietnam, Esper will seek new ways to cooperate with the nation to promote peace in Southeast Asia.

Esper will discuss Chinese claims in the South and East China Sea. He will reiterate the U.S. desire that any solutions in the disagreements over national claims in those bodies are arrived at peacefully.

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