Harris: Strengthening, Expanding Alliances Would Benefit Pacific Posture

From Seapower Magazine (Nov 15): Harris: Strengthening, Expanding Alliances Would Benefit Pacific Posture

The commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific and East Asian regions said the defense posture there would be strengthened by expanding the network of alliances and partnerships.

“The Indo-Asian region is the most consequential region for America’s future,” Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. said Nov. 15 at the Defense One Leadership Briefing in Washington. “America has critical national interests in the region. … The Indo-Asian-Pacific is as important to America as it ever has been. America is a Pacific nation and a Pacific power. It always has been and always will be.

“Our nation remains the security partner of choice now and will remain so well into the future,” he said, while recommending widening the network of alliances and partnerships in the region.

“We need to go beyond hub and spoke,” Harris said, referring to the five bilateral alliances the United States has with Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Harris said he is working hard to promote a trilateral alliance between Japan, South Korea and the United States. He also sees promise in a potential multilateral alliance of major democracies in the region — Japan, Australia, India and the United States. He also sees advantages in a South China Sea multilateral alliance among Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations “will never be a NATO,” Harris said, but he noted the success those nations have achieved in counterpiracy operations.

Asked about the current U.S. relationship with the Philippines, in light of anti-U.S. statements from President Rodrigo Duterte, Harris affirmed that he has a good relationship with Filipino defense officials and that the defense agreements with the Philippines remain in place.

“Allies and partners matter,” Harris said. “We will continue our steadfast commitment to our allies and partners.”

Harris said his main concerns in the region were North Korea’s nuclear weapon programs, China’s assertiveness, and the potential spread of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to Islamic nations in the region. He said that Special Operations Command Pacific is continuing to help the Philippines counter insurgent groups like the Abu Sayyaf group on Mindanao Island. U.S. forces still are allowed to use five bases in the Philippines.

Harris said the military-to-military relationship with China’s armed forces is good, but noted his concerns about China’s assertiveness in the South and East China Seas, particularly the seven bases constructed on reefs in the South China Sea. He said that U.S. forces will continue freedom-of-navigation (FON) operations in the region.

“Freedom of navigation is a core tenet of what we do,” he said, noting a recent FON operation in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands.

Harris said the importance of the Pacific region is illustrated by the actions of the United States to station its most modern and capable weapons systems there. He listed the F-35B Lightning II strike fighter — soon to arrive in Japan — the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, the Virginia-class submarine, the Zumwalt-class guided-missile destroyer and the littoral combat ship (LCS).

Harris said he had faith in the LCS program and that, when up-gunned with more lethal weapons, it will be a force an adversary would have to reckon with.

He recalled his days as a tactical action officer onboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga in the Mediterranean Sea during the Cold War. His chief worry was the SS-N-2 Styx cruise missile carried by the Soviet-built Nanuchka corvettes and Osa and Tarantul missile boats.

“They were a threat well beyond their size,” he said of the missile vessels. “I want the LCS to be viewed by our adversaries in the region in the same way that I viewed, Osas, Nanuchkas and Tarantuls back in the ‘80s.”

http://seapowermagazine.org/stories/20161115-harris.html