U.S. CHAIRMAN JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF MEETS WITH COUNTERPART IN AUSTRAILIA



Map Credit:  U.S. State Department.



FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
PERTH, Australia, Nov. 12, 2012 – After meeting with his Australian counterpart here today, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has met with the military leaders of America’s three closest allies in the Asia-Pacific region during his current overseas trip.

Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey met Gen. David Hurley, chief of Australia’s defense force, upon his arrival for the annual ministerial consultations between the United States and Australia.

Earlier today, the chairman met with Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, chief of staff of the Japanese joint staff. Yesterday, he met with his South Korean counterpart Gen. Jung Seung-jo following a full day of meetings in the South Korean capital of Seoul and a trip to Korea’s Demilitarized Zone.

In an interview, Dempsey said the alliances among the United States, South Korea, Japan and Australia are the most enduring in the Asia-Pacific. "What I’m trying to do is rise above the very topical and tactical issues and to gain some clarity and consensus on how we can find our way forward together," he added.

Reason exists to pursue multilateral architectures in the Asia-Pacific region, "but we have to take into account their preferences," the general said. He noted that a number of significant exercises have taken place in the region, citing the Thai-hosted Cobra Gold and the U.S.-sponsored Rim of the Pacific exercises as examples of multilateral cooperation among the region’s nations.

Asia-Pacific nations also are working more closely together in the counterpiracy mission from the Straits of Malacca to the Gulf of Aden.

Generally, the allies in the Pacific are comfortable with bilateral relations with the United States as a step toward multilateral relations, the chairman said.

During his trip to South Korea, Dempsey visited U.S. and South Korean troops at the Demilitarized Zone. Though he has been to Korea a number of times, it was his first visit to the frontier between the North and South.

"What I was struck by was 60 years of vigilance and partnership, and what that has meant," he said. "This generation of young Korean and American service members are following in the footsteps of previous generations. I felt damn glad to have them up there."

While he and Jung discussed the changes in North Korea, Dempsey said, they didn’t dwell on them. "We took stock of activities over time, whether it’s the obvious ones like the shelling of islands of the sinking of the Cheonan, or GPS jamming or the missile tests," he said. "Then we looked at not only what we should be doing to better prepare ourselves for whatever the future security situation brings up."

The alliance is successful, but it is going to change, the chairman said, noting that he and Jung discussed what needs to happen to transition to the strategic alliance of 2015. The United States will remain committed to the defense of South Korea, he explained, but the command relationship will change, and he and Jung discussed the path the two countries are on and what still needs to happen.

In Australia, Dempsey will join Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta in meetings with their counterparts. "This shows we are paying more attention to the Asia-Pacific," he said. "How that will manifest itself will be determined."

Dempsey said he expects the conversations to run the full gamut of issues both nations are concerned with, including force posture and partnering, freedom of navigation, counterpiracy, and all things that affect the maritime domain.

"I will also try to encourage a conversation about how in the Asia-Pacific there is a nexus or convergence of maritime issues with space issues with cyber issues," he said. "This convergence is worthy of our time to think through together."

STRAIT OF MALACCA SHOWS MULTILATERAL COOPERATION

U.S. sailors handle lines in preparation to get the littoral combat ship USS Freedom under way from her homeport in Mayport, Fla., Feb. 16, 2010. Freedom, the Navy's first littoral combat ship, is scheduled for a 10-month rotational deployment to Singapore beginning in the spring of 2013. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Leah Stiles

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Strait of Malacca Stands as Model of Multilateral Cooperation
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Aug. 1, 2012 - U.S. Pacific Command is holding up a multinational partnership in the Asia-Pacific region as a model for the type of cooperation the command is working to promote to deal with transnational threats.

A decade ago, the Strait of Malacca was a dangerous place, where pirates launched almost 50 attacks a year in the narrow, 550-mile-long sea lane linking the Indian and Pacific oceans. That had serious international implications, because about 50,000 vessels transit the passageway each year, carrying an estimated 40 percent of the world's trade.

Today, incidents have dropped to fewer than five a year, without a single successful hijacking in almost four years, reported Air Force Maj. Gen. Michael A. Keltz, Pacom's director of strategic planning and policy.

Keltz attributed that success to a partnership among nations bordering the strait, with help from U.S.-funded technology that has boosted maritime security dramatically.

Meanwhile, countries that once resisted engaging in multilateral, multinational operations now are doing so, Keltz said. Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and, increasingly, Thailand, have joined forces to increase patrols and improve their collective maritime domain awareness and law-enforcement capabilities.

A command and control information center that opened at Singapore's Changi Naval Base in 2009 supports this effort, drawing together information shared by 11 nations. This includes data from shore-based radars positioned throughout the region and an electronic tracking system that automatically identifies vessels transiting the strait.

The neighbors share this information, establishing a common operational picture that enables all to better detect and identify potential threats, Keltz said.

The Strait of Malacca stands as an example, he said, as nations come together to address regional challenges collectively.

"That is the model we are building for our [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] partner nations," he said. "We help them achieve the basic [defense] capabilities so that they can do that [mission] themselves."

As it implements the new strategic guidance focused heavily on the Asia-Pacific, Pacom is working actively to promote more multilateral cooperation, Keltz noted. It's a major thrust behind the Pacific rebalancing effort, including new force rotational arrangements.

"We want to be better situated around the entire Pacific to build those partnership capacities on a trilateral, multilateral and regional basis," he said.

As regional partners exercise their own enhanced capabilities, Singapore has agreed to host U.S. Navy littoral combat ships on a rotational basis. The Navy's new LCS, USS Freedom, is scheduled for its first 10-month rotational deployment to Singapore beginning next spring.

Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, Pacom commander, welcomed the planned rotations, along with Marine rotational deployments in Australia, as a way to expand U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific without the need for more permanently based forces.

The littoral combat ships, he said, will be positioned alongside a strong, reliable partner near the strategic Strait of Malacca that links the Indian and Pacific oceans. "It will give us a unique, credible combat credibility for our maritime security, particularly in one of the largest choke points in the world," he said.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Defense Minister Ng En Hen of Singapore announced during security talks in Singapore that the two countries had agreed to lay plans for expanding this arrangement to include additional littoral ships.

"Secretary Panetta reaffirmed that the LCS deployment would strengthen U.S. engagement in the region, through the port calls at regional ports, and engagement of regional navies through activities such as exercises and exchanges," according to a joint statement released after that meeting.

Locklear said he'd like to build on these models as he implements the new strategic guidance that emphasizes the importance of Asia and the Pacific. Rotational forces provide "an uptick in presence" that he said complements that provided by the 330,000 service members permanently based within Pacom's area of responsibility.

"What they provide is an ability to work with our allies and to leverage the capabilities of the allies across all aspects of peace to conflict," the admiral said. Meanwhile, he added, the additional presence rotational forces provide creates regional footholds that could pay off if the United States had to flow more forces to protect U.S. or allies interests there.

That presence, and the experience base it helps to build, would be particularly valuable in a disaster requiring humanitarian assistance, such as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, or any other crisis, he said.

"It gives training to the forces that rotate in and out," he explained, so they are familiar with the region and the regional militaries if they need to work together. He cited last year's Operation Tomodachi in Japan as an example. "So there is a lot of value to it," he said.