Panetta Spells Out five-point US Defence Strategy for Asia Pacific

June 06, 2012

New Delhi: Laying at rest the apprehension that the US will use India in its strategy to contain China, US Secretary of Defence, Mr Leon E Panetta, in a major speech at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on June 6, 2012, said “as the United States and India deepen our defence partnerships with each other, both of us will also seek to strengthen our relations with China. We recognise that China has a critical role to play in advancing security and prosperity in this region”

In an answer to a query, Mr Panetta clarified five points of the US Strategy towards Asia pacific. These are: The US will maintain agile, flexible and deployable force; it will focus on tension points in the Pacific and the Middle East; it will maintain presence in the rest of the world, following the principle of rotation of forces and building partnerships; it will seek to confront at least two conflicts at the same time and ensure victory; and finally it will invest in new areas to deal with issues like Cyber security, space security and special forces.

Speaking further, Mr Panetta praised India’s support towards USA’s effort in gradually handing over Afghanistan the responsibility of security governance and economic affairs and urged the Indian leadership to “continue with additional support to Afghanistan through trade and investment, reconstruction and help for security forces.”

Terming relationship with Pakistan as complicated for both India and US, Mr Panetta emphasised on working towards improving ties with Pakistan. He praised India and Pakistan’s efforts towards normalizing trade relations, a process which he said was a key towards resolving their differences and in helping Pakistan turn around its economy and counter extremism within its borders. He hinted that US Drone attacks against terrorists in FATA region will continue as the US will not shy away from defending its own “sovereignty”.

“America’s involvement in Asia has an important past” he insisted, “but a more important future” Speaking on Indo US relations, he said that the two nations share a strong commitment to a set of principles that help maintain security and prosperity. He added that both the nations face many similar security challenges from violent extremism and terrorism to piracy on the high seas and from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to regional instability. “Handling these challenges requires a forward looking vision for our defence partnerships and a plan for advancing it month by month or year by year” he said.

Speaking further on Indo-US Defence partnership he said that the expanded military exercises, defence sales and intelligence sharing are key examples of the relationship’s maturation. “We have also increased our defence relationship from virtually nothing early in the last decade to sales worth over $8 Billion today, he emphsised.”

Though the two nations may not agree on every solution to the challenges, Mr Panetta expressed hope that both India and US will continue to draw closer together because they “share same values, same challenges and threats and the same vision of a just stable and peaceful regional order.