By Ankit Panda
So far, the U.S. approach to the South China Sea doesn’t involve the establishment of additional military bases.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, U.S. Admiral Scott Swift, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, dismissed rumors that the United States was interested in pursuing new military “bases” and “infrastructure” in either Darwin or Fremantle, Australia. Swift’s remarks come as tensions remain high in the South China Sea, where China has built man-made islands out of submerged maritime features at an unprecedented rate beginning last year. Swift made headlines in late July when he participated in a seven hour surveillance flight over the South China Sea on a U.S. P-8A Poseidon surveillance aircraft, one of his first acts as the commander of the Pacific Fleet after taking over from Admiral Harry Harris.
“As the Pacific Fleet commander I currently see no value of new bases,” Swift told the press in Australia. ”We don’t need more infrastructure from a navy point of view.”
“If the entire U.S. Navy was stationed in the East China Sea [and] South China Sea the question I would still get [is] ‘when is the rebalance going to be real, what more can you send to the region,’” Swift continued. As the Sydney Morning Herald notes, the U.S. Pacific Fleet, “comprising five aircraft carrier groups, 200 ships and submarines, 2000 aircraft and a quarter of a million sailors and marines,” already fields considerable naval strength, far above the capabilities of any other regional navy, including China.
Read the full story at The Diplomat