By WENDELL MINNICK and MARCUS WEISGERBER
TAIPEI and WASHINGTON — The 11th Asia Security Summit in Singapore June 1-3 will take place against a backdrop of renewed U.S. pledges to defend Asia-Pacific allies growing nervous about aggressive Chinese territorial claims.
This is the first visit by both Leon Panetta as U.S. secretary of defense and Adm. Samuel Locklear as head of U.S. Pacific Command. Other U.S. officials include Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.
Panetta’s Singapore visit is part of a weeklong trip that includes the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii, then Vietnam and finally India.
“I’m sure the Chinese will view visits to India and Vietnam as aimed at shoring up coalitions with partners in the region who are concerned about China,” said Bonnie Glaser, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “The U.S. has an interest in bolstering those relationships, so I don’t share the view that it is all about China.”
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