By Zachary Keck
Ahead of his fourth trip to the region, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the US remains committed to the rebalance.
Despite the Ukraine crisis and ongoing civil war in Syria, the U.S. swears that the Asia pivot is still on.
That’s the message that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is trying to project ahead of a 10-day trip to Asia that begins today with the U.S.-ASEAN Defense Forum in Hawaii.
Speaking to a pool of reporters at the Pentagon on Monday, Hagel said the purpose of the trip is to “reemphasize the rebalance [and] strategic interests of our country, to reassure our allies, to, again, make very clear of our commitment to our allies in the Asia Pacific.” Just a few seconds later he reiterated: “The meeting in Hawaii and the full agenda of this trip, again, underscores the importance of this rebalance.” Hagel next emphasized that the United States has been “a Pacific Power for many years. We’ve looked forward to a continuation of building those relationships and those partnerships as we go forward.”
In what will be the fourth Asia-Pacific trip he has made during his first year as defense secretary, Hagel will meet with the defense chiefs of all ten ASEAN nations before traveling to Japan, China, and Mongolia. The defense forum in Hawaii that begins on Tuesday will be the first one that the U.S. has ever hosted. The U.S. is likely to seek to make its hosting of the forum a more institutionalized event in the years ahead. Already, it has characterized the meeting as “historic.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat