US Secretary of Defense Pete HegSeth pushed US partners in Asia to increase defense spending on 5% gross domestic product, which warned to prepare for a potential Chinese invasion of Tai -Wan.
Hegset, who addressed defense officials at a Singapore conference, warned the country of deepening economic ties with China and raising defense relations with the US. And he showed that President Donald Trump’s administration will use the NATO model on the region – aggressively demanding countries spend more on defense.
“NATO members committed to spending 5% of their GDP on defense-dokonka and Germany,” HegSeth said on Saturday in Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore. “So it makes no sense for the country to do in Europe, while the key allies in Asia spend less on the face of the face of an impressive threat, not to mention North Korea?”
The speech – his first main outline of the approach of Trump’s administration to defense in Asia – corresponds to the wide pressure of Trump’s administration members to shift its focus from European defense to Asia and especially China, which American officials have long claimed to be a leading threat facing the US.
Also, the hard decisions for many allies and American partners in Asia who do not find almost 5% of GDP in defense. Since last year, South Korea has led a region with 2.6% of GDP, followed by Tai -Wan, Australia, Japan and the Philippines, according to the Stockholm International Institute for Peace Research.
The US also does not spend 5% of GDP in defense, although it pours more into military expenditures than any other nation.
Hegset’s approach also indicated that the US Allies see no relief from Trump’s pressure stored in his first term of office when he demanded that Japan and South Korea would pay more for hosting US troops. HegSeth did not mention that expenditures specifically in his speech, but Trump’s administration officials consistently said that countries around the world should become less dependent on the US as a guarantor of their security.
Hegseth repeated the feelings that Trump spread out in a speech in Saudi Arabia in May, and said that the US did not want to “push other countries to accept and accept our policy or ideology”.
“We are not here to impose our will on you,” HegSeth said.
He also tried to reassure Chinese officials – who refuse to accuse that they were planning to attack Tai -wan – by saying twice that the US was not looking for war with China.
He acknowledged that the economic dependence of allies on China would complicate the US decision -making and say that “no one knows what China will eventually do, but are preparing, and therefore we must be ready.”
He explained that while the US will not leave its allies, their close relations will not prevent the US from proportionate to invest more in its defense industrial foundations to face China. And he warned that “urgency and alertness” was the only option.
“The threat that China represents is real,” he said.
HegSeth visited Japan and Philippines in March, but a trip to Singapore for the annual Shangri-LA dialogue was his chance to explain to the defense officials of Trump in the next three years.
The forum was often a place where the highest defense officials from the US and China would meet, but Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun will skip this year’s event – in its speech, Hegset emphasized the absence.
Last year, the then Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered improved relations with Beijing, although he emphasized the efforts of Washington about the assembly of regional partners against Beijing. The access of the new administration could further increase tensions between the US and China, which are again on the rise.
Trump accused China on a violation of the US agreement on Friday to mitigate tariffs. His administration introduced new restrictions on the sale of Chip design software and announced at the beginning of this week that some Chinese student visas would begin to cancel, a step that Beijing fired as “discriminatory”.
HegSeth described Indo-Pacific as a “priority theater” for the US and said that Trump’s administration expects that the country is expected to be more committed to cooperating with the defense against “urgent” threat to China.
“The only way to ensure permanent alliances and partnership is to ensure that each party makes its part,” he said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency without text modifications.
(Tagstotranslate) American Defense Minister (T) Defense Expenditure (T) Chinese invasion of Tai -Wan
