Fresh off his third trip to Asia since being confirmed as Secretary of Defense in February, Ashton Carter on Saturday underscored the U.S. commitment to maintaining peace throughout the Asia-Pacific region, where China is asserting its right to exploit resources and undertaking an unsettling campaign of expansionist land reclamation.
Speaking to the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif., Carter said China and Russia threaten a “global order” of relative peace and cooperation that began when the Soviet Union collapsed during Reagan’s presidency, ending the Cold War.
China is conducting a campaign of land reclamation and territorial expansion in the South China Sea that threatens the trillions of dollars of commerce that pass through the region every year, Carter said.
“The United States, joins virtually everyone else in the region, in being deeply concerned about the pace and scope of land reclamation in the South China Sea, the prospect of further militarization, as well as the potential for these activities to increase the risk of miscalculation or conflict among claimant states,” he said.
The United States wants to manage rather than quash China’s rise as a major economic and military power in the Pacific. The military is therefore making investments in technologies relevant to the largely maritime theater, including subsurface warfare, electronic warfare, space, cyber and missile defense, Carter said.
Carter on Thursday flew to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), then transiting the sea during one of the last legs of an around-the-world voyage to its new home port in San Diego. Present in the Roosevelt’s carrier task force during Carter’s visit was the USS Lassen (DDG-82) guided missile destroyer, which in October conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea.
Carter said he has accepted an invitation to visit China personally sometime in 2016, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping “will surely discuss our differences, but we can also talk about the many opportunities we have to work together to address common challenges, such as piracy, humanitarian disasters, climate change, among many others.”
Halfway around the globe in a theater that until recently the U.S. military regarded as pacified, Russia also threatens a decades-long international order by invading Ukraine and inserting its military into the already crowded battlefield in Syria, Carter said.
Responding to Russia’s Ukraine gambit, the Pentagon has begun prepositioning tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery and other equipment needed to respond to further provocation of eastern NATO nations, as well as providing equipment and training to aid Ukraine’s military as it confronts Russian-supported insurgents in Eastern Ukraine. The Defense Department also has provided equipment and support to NATO’s new Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, which is designed to quickly respond to future contingencies in southern and eastern Europe.
“We’re investing in the technologies that are most relevant to Russia’s provocations, such as new unmanned systems, a new long-range bomber, and innovation in technologies like the electromagnetic railgun, lasers, and new systems for electronic warfare, space and cyberspace, including a few surprising ones that I really can’t describe here,” Carter said. “We’re updating and advancing our operational plans for deterrence and defense given Russia’s changed behavior.”
“The Cold War playbook–including large American forces stationed in Europe…worked in Reagan’s day, but it’s not suited for the 21st century, with its hybrid warfare, cyber-threats, and asymmetric tactics; and the vast enlargement of NATO territory,” he added.
Other investments and strategies to counter Russia’s recent aggression include modernizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal and conducting information campaigns to counter Russia’s propaganda supporting its moves in Europe and Syria and levying sanctions.