US retired Admiral - Quad needs 'standing force' in Indo-Pacific

 

Quad needs 'standing force' in Indo-Pacific: ex-U.S. Navy chief

 

As Chinese President Xi Jinping was being anointed to a third term as top leader this past weekend, key U.S. players in the Indo-Pacific realm participated in a pair of events in Tokyo.
 
At a CSIS/Nikkei Symposium, retired Adm. Gary Roughead, the former chief of naval operations, called for the Quad security grouping of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India to establish a standing maritime force in the Indo-Pacific region to counter China. He suggested that the command of that force "would rotate perhaps every six months among the countries."
 
Roughead also suggested splitting the responsibilities of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, into two -- one headquarters for Northeast Asia and a separate headquarters for Southeast Asia that also encompasses the eastern Indian Ocean.
 
John Hamre, the CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that from former President Barack Obama's "pivot to Asia" to former President Donald Trump's focus on the great power competition with China, there is a "remarkable consistency" in American security policy.
 
But the former deputy defense secretary said the lack of a coherent trade policy under President Joe Biden will hamper Washington's efforts to place a greater focus on the Indo-Pacific. "Foreign policy in Asia is trade policy. And with no trade policy, America can't be a full partner in building the new Asia," he said.
 
Hamre's views were echoed by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi at the Mount Fuji Dialogue, where he said that the U.S. should be at the center of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, which Trump withdrew from in 2017.
 
Biden's point man on the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell, joined the Mount Fuji Dialogue via video, noting that the White House was closely following what Chinese leaders were saying on Taiwan at the Chinese Communist Party's national congress. Campbell said the U.S. has tried to be clear to Beijing that it is committed to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
 
Finally on China, former George W. Bush administration official Michael Green talked about how Beijing tried to demonize former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with its ambassador to London comparing Abe to Lord Voldemort, the dark wizard of the Harry Potter series. Yet when Abe was assassinated this summer, Xi acknowledged that the slain leader had contributed to improving China-Japan relations.
 
"There was a grudging respect. I think in some ways, that's the greatest tribute of all," Green said.