U.S. military relationship is closest ever: Ashton Carter
- by Leah Brady
- in Worldwide
- — Oct 2, 2016
The United States Pacific Command will conduct a joint exercise with the navies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to assist the 10-member group in strengthening its surveillance capabilities, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said.
Carter made the pledge Thursday in a speech in San Diego.
This weekend, the United States and ASEAN states held an informal defense ministers' meeting in Hawaii (See: "U.S. -ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Kicks Off in Hawaii").
Get breaking news right in your inbox.
."I'd be happy to slaughter them", Duterte said.
This file photo taken on July 27, 2016 shows Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (R) greeting US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip S. Goldberg (L) as US Secretary of State John Kerry looks on during his visit to the Malacanang presidential palace in Manila. Duterte also has demanded the withdrawal of US special forces from the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.
The US-Philippine alliance has "had its ups and downs and survived", one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. Carter also highlighted the work the Philippines is doing with regional partners on counter-piracy operations as and example of Pacific nations "coming together on their own by establishing bilateral and trilateral mechanism". I can't share all the details on these for obvious reasons, but what our friends and our potential adversaries - and all of you - should know is that these new capabilities will help us keep our decades-old commitment to undergirding security in the Asia-Pacific, strong and unchallengeable.
The dialogue is a forum for implementing the framework for the India US cyber relationship, says the joint statement.
Syrian official promises Aleppo ground offensive
He said the attack on civil defense centers had hindered their work because some of their vehicles had been destroyed. It was not immediately possible to verify or assess the extent of the damage or independently confirm who hit it.
Earlier this week, after the USA and Japan announced it would conduct military training exercises in the West Pacific, China flew 40 jets over a strait near Japan.
Noting that Asia-Pacific is the most consequential region for America's future, he said the USA is managing "historic change" in the area.
A senior US defense official who briefed reporters said that Washington estimates that several hundred Islamic State fighters have returned to Southeast Asia from the Middle East.
Despite his inflammatory comments, Duterte has said the Philippines will maintain security agreements with Washington, and Philippines Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said Duterte had only ruled out joint patrols beyond the Philippines' 12-nautical mile territorial waters. He noted that the Philippines will maintain its military alliance with the USA because they share a 65-year-old mutual defence treaty.
Duterte on Wednesday said he would soon end joint military exercises with the United States, a symbolic blow to a military alliance dating back more than 60 years. The official said that a number of fighters in the low hundreds have already returned.
Duterte, who earlier said China doesn't want the Philippines to participate in the war games, also accused the United States of being selfish, after the Americans denied his request to procure missiles and other equipment.
"China is rising, which is fine, but sometimes behaving aggressively, which is not", Carter said. But the Pentagon still plans to invest in building up a quintet of military facilities in the Philippines, and does not appear concerned about a cut off for military exercises.
