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| US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin |
International Military - The Pentagon chief or US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said America had no intention of creating an "Asian NATO". Austin's comments were delivered at the Shangri-La Dialogue 2022 forum in Singapore, Saturday (11/6/2022).
Austin spoke for half an hour at the forum's First Plenary Session. He reiterated that the US remains committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific. "We are not looking for confrontation and conflict and we are not looking for a new Cold War, NATO Asia or dividing the region into enemy blocs," he said.
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The United States and its allies in the Indo-Pacific recently expressed concern over China's increasingly assertive military posture in the region. Beijing, for its part, has complained about what it sees as efforts by the US and its partners to form a defense alliance in the region.
When leaders from the US, Japan, India and Australia met last month for the Security Dialogue Quad summit, China voiced its dismay. Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington wanted to join the "small circle" and change China's environment, making Asia-Pacific countries become "pawns" of US hegemony.
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“I think Secretary Austin made it very clear that there is no desire to create an Asian NATO,” said Blake Herzinger, a Singapore-based defense analyst. "The US values collective partnerships with shared visions and priorities, without the need to form defense alliances," he told Radio Free Asia (RFA).