As U.S.-China relations sour, Defense Secretary Ash Carter is using his Asia-Pacific trip to shore up other partners.
Carter’s trip was timed with the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a highly attended security conference in Singapore that was marked this year by tensions surrounding China’s artificial expansion of the Spratly Islands into a military installation in the South China Sea. After the dialogue, Carter expanded his visit to emphasize U.S. strengths with two regional allies it will need to counter Chinese gains — India and Vietnam.
On Monday, in a toast to the 20th anniversary of normalized relations between the U.S. and Vietnam, Carter said it is his goal to “strengthen the regional security architecture so that every nation — every nation — in this wonderful region can rise and win together.” He quickly added, “I was speaking about countries like Vietnam and India … and other countries of the Asia-Pacific region.”
Carter’s Vietnam stop brought no major new weapons or exercise announcements, but the secretary did announce the U.S. is providing the Vietnamese Coast Guard with $18 million to purchase American Metal Shark patrol vessels.
Carter now moves on to India, where he will spend three days touring India’s expanding defensive capabilities and signing a 10-year defense agreement set into place this year during President Obama’s visit to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Pentagon could not say whether the India visit would bring any major weapons announcements.
Once finalized, the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative will allow the U.S. to work with India on the co-development of future missile defense systems, share jet engine technology and share aircraft carrier technology. The agreement follows a new defense framework the U.S. formed with Japan this year that will also allow the two countries to co-develop missile defense technology.
India, like many of the Asia-Pacific nations, is modernizing its naval capabilities. Since 2013 it has acquired and launched the carrier INS Vikramaditya, which was purchased and refurbished from a 1980s-era Russian hull originally named the Admiral Gorshkov, and completed the construction of its own brand-new carrier, the INS Vikrant. It launched its first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, the INS Arihant, late last year.
