Asia a crucial priority for US Navy - Admiral
US: The US Navy will place a top priority on deploying ships
in the Asia-Pacific region even as it faces possible budget cuts that
could curtail other global missions, the naval chief said Wednesday.
With China’s clout rising and its military reach expanding, President
Barack Obama’s deputies and military commanders increasingly portray
Asia as a key to American national security.
“Asia will be clearly a priority and we will adjust our operations
accordingly,” Admiral Jonathan Greenert, US chief of naval operations,
told reporters in a teleconference.
“The Navy now constantly maintains an aircraft carrier — either the
USS Kitty Hawk or the USS George Washington — in the Pacific, compared
to 10 years ago when a carrier was available only 70 percent of the
time, he said.
Apart from Asia, the Navy also needs to ensure a presence around the
world but budget pressures will require having to make “trade-offs” when
it comes to operations and joint exercises with partners, he said. “If
you’re not in some areas of the world at all, then things can fester
there and become a bigger problem later,” he said.
“The trade-offs become how we distribute our Navy around the world
both from the perspective of security operations and also exercises with
allies,” he said. Washington, Thursday, AFP |