United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hailed a “new era of security” in the Indo-Pacific, as Washington strengthens its network of alliances and partnerships.
From Australia to Japan, the U.S. has deepened defense ties across the region, ramping up joint military exercises and regularly deploying assets to conduct freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea.
In the past three years, Austin said there has been a “new convergence around nearly all aspects of security” in the Indo-Pacific, where there is a shared understanding of “the power of partnership.”
“This new convergence is producing a stronger, more resilient and more capable network of partnerships and that is defining a new era of security in the Indo-Pacific,” Austin said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore in June 2024.
However, it is not “about imposing one country’s will” or “bullying or coercion,” Austin told defense officials at the annual international security forum.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has increased its military coercion and other gray-zone tactics around self-governed Taiwan, threatening to annex the island by force. Beijing also continues to aggressively press its territorial claims in the South China Sea, ignoring an international tribunal’s 2016 ruling that dismissed those claims as legally invalid.
“This new convergence is about coming together and not splitting apart,” Austin said. “It’s about the free choices of sovereign states.”
The forum came a week after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army staged drills around Taiwan and warned of war following the May 2024 inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te. Austin met with PRC defense minister Dong Jun on the sidelines of the forum for the first such face-to-face talks between the nations’ defense chiefs in 18 months. Beijing refused a meeting between Austin and the PRC’s then defense minister at the 2023 forum but has gradually resumed regular military communications with the U.S.
Austin said the nations would continue military-to-military communications “in the coming months,” while Beijing hailed the “stabilizing” security relations between the countries.
“I told Minister Dong that if he calls me on an urgent matter, I will answer the phone,” Austin said. “And I certainly hope that he’ll do the same.”
Austin said the Indo-Pacific remains Washington’s “priority theater of operations,” noting that the U.S. can be secure only if the region is. “We are all in and we’re not going anywhere.”
The Philippines, a longtime treaty ally of the U.S., is a key part of efforts to build an arc of alliances across the region. Manila recently increased to nine the number of sites open to U.S. forces under the nations’ 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, including two in the country’s far north, less than 450 kilometers from Taiwan.
Austin said the U.S. commitment to defend Manila under their mutual defense treaty remains “ironclad,” as Chinese coast guard vessels continue to harass Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, stoking fears of a wider conflict.
“The harassment that the Philippines has faced is dangerous — pure and simple,” he said.
In his keynote address to the forum, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the “stabilizing presence of the United States is crucial to regional peace.”
