{"id":4090,"date":"2016-06-04T19:29:21","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T19:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/?p=4090"},"modified":"2016-06-05T09:30:27","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T09:30:27","slug":"us-defense-chief-proposes-asia-pacific-security-network-at-asia-defense-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/us-defense-chief-proposes-asia-pacific-security-network-at-asia-defense-summit\/","title":{"rendered":"US Defense chief proposes Asia-Pacific ‘security network’ at Asia defense summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tensions over the South China Sea dominated discussions at the three-day Asia security summit in Singapore, attended by top defense officials<\/strong><\/p>\n

SINGAPORE\u00a0—\u00a0US Defense Secretary Ash Carter proposed a\u00a0“security network” of Asia-Pacific to accelerate and deepen defense cooperation in the region.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0also warned that China risks further alienating regional neighbours and building a \u201cGreat Wall of self-isolation<\/a><\/span>\u201d as China\u00a0\u201chas taken some expansive and unprecedented actions (in the South China Sea), that have generated concerns about China\u2019s strategic intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at a Shangri-La Dialogue\u00a02016<\/span><\/a> summit Singapore on Saturday, he urged China to join a \u201cprincipled security network<\/a><\/span>\u201d for Asia, saying that the United States would remain the “most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come.”<\/p>\n

The three-day Asian security summit kicked off in Singapore on Friday, focused on tensions in the South China Sea, North Korea\u2019s continued nuclear and missile provocations\u00a0and the threat of terrorism\u00a0to the region.<\/p>\n

Defence ministers and military chiefs and officials from around 30 countries are attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s largest annual security forum in Singapore organized byInternational Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).<\/p>\n

Apart from Carter, Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar and New Zealand Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee are attending the summit.<\/p>\n

\"China\u2019s<\/a>

China\u2019s Admiral Sun Jianguo speaking in Singapore on Sunday, June 5, 2016. Photo: EPA<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

China says Carter’s remarks reflected a “Cold War mentality”<\/span><\/h3>\n

A senior Chinese naval commander, in his powerful speech explained Beijing\u2019s stance on territorial disputes in the South China Sea, criticizing what he condemned as U.S. interference in Asian security issues.<\/p>\n

Adm. Sun Jianguo, a deputy chief of the Chinese military\u2019s Joint Staff Department, reject U.S. allegations that Beijing risked isolating itself with its expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not isolated in the past, we are not isolated now, and we will not be isolated in the future,\u201d Adm. Sun said at the annual Singapore gathering of Asian and Western defense officials.<\/p>\n

Instead, he criticized other countries for retaining \u201ca Cold War mentality\u201d when dealing with China, saying they may only \u201cend up isolating themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adm. Sun, however, said the debate over \u201cthe South China Sea issue has become overheated because of the provocations of certain countries for their own selfish interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Thailand's<\/a>

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha speaking at Shangri-La Dialogue 2016 summit in Singapore<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Thai PM says international law South China Sea tensions<\/span><\/h3>\n

Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha called for upholding international law on the South China Sea dispute.\u00a0\u201cI believe that if we look at everything from the standout of conflict we will never be able to see a way out,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

In his speech.\u00a0Mr. Prayuth discussed regional and global security issues and their impacts on the region, including threats to ASEAN such as extremism, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and irregular migration.<\/p>\n

He assured that\u00a0“Thailand will return to democracy in accordance with the road map and that Thailand upholds the democratic process\u201d while acknowledging that \u00a0Thailand had been divided by conflict stemming from a political culture that produced democracy in form but not function.<\/p>\n

What is the Shangri-La Dialogue and why is it important?<\/span><\/h3>\n

Since its establishment in 2002, the security summit, organized by the London-based think tank International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS<\/span>)<\/a>, has become a key platform to explore resolutions for security issues and promote security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n

It gets its name from the location of the meeting, the Shangri-La hotel in Singapore.<\/p>\n

The dialogue gathers military representatives from some of the world\u2019s most powerful countries to discuss pressing and significant defence and security issues.<\/p>\n

The meeting is a chance for defence ministers, military chiefs and high-ranking defence officials to hold bilateral meetings on its sidelines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tensions over the South China Sea dominated discussions at the three-day Asia security summit in Singapore, attended […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1],"tags":[137,45,6,64,70,113,86,188,7],"class_list":["post-4090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","tag-asia","tag-china","tag-defense","tag-france","tag-india","tag-security","tag-singapore","tag-thailand","tag-u-s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Ash-Carter.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-13Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4090"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4103,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4090\/revisions\/4103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}