Panetta, in speech in Singapore, seeks to lend heft to U.S. pivot to Asia

SINGAPORE ? Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta landed in Singapore Thursday to unveil a plan to Asian leaders for retooling the U.S. military?s Pacific focus.

Panetta?s scheduled speech on Friday to counterparts from 28 countries is part of an eight-day trip that is seen as crucial to the Obama administration?s plan to shift its military and foreign policy focus to Asia.

The policy is aimed at using traditional allegiances as well as budding strategic partnerships with countries like Vietnam and India to counterbalance China?s rising military power and assertiveness. Since its announcement in November, the policy has prompted questions from Asian leaders and sharp criticism from China.

Asian leaders have clamored for answers about what the pivot means, how substantive and permanent it will be and how it may affect countries caught in the tug of war between the United States and China for regional influence and power projection.

Spurring doubts about the substance and seriousness of the policy are looming cuts in spending and a lack of detail from U.S. officials since the announcement ? worries that the administration hopes to address with Panetta?s tour.

In comments to reporters en route to Singapore, Panetta argued that the new Asia strategy could still have significant impact despite upcoming budget cuts of $487�billion to the military over the next decade and a possible $500�billion in additional cuts unless Congress acts by raising revenue or shrinking other parts of the U.S. budget.

?The budget does encompass what we need to do,? Panetta said, noting that the strategy generally emphasizes less expensive ways of projecting power in Asia. Those include increased military exchanges, joint exercises and short rotational deployments of American troops cycling through strategic spots to shore up alliances.

?We?re moving away from the Cold War strategy where you build permanent bases and basically impose our power on the region,? Panetta said. ?We?re moving toward very innovative and creative relationships.?

One such rotational deployment recently began in Australia, and others are being discussed in the Philippines and elsewhere. Defense officials declined to specify which additional countries are under consideration.

A key aspect of the plan, defense officials say, is building up multilateral ties through economic, diplomatic and military avenues. The advantage of such a regional approach is to force China to deal with smaller countries in Asia as a collective and prevent the rising superpower from bullying countries individually when disputes arise.

?This is not about containment of China,? Panetta argued. ?This is about bringing China into that relationship to try to deal with common challenges we all face,? such as humanitarian assistance, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, drug trafficking and piracy.

Taking a multilateral approach will mean overcoming significant hurdles that have prevented some countries in Asia from close cooperation in the past.

Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=1976a3a4f2f63040e98a8e3883272802

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