US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday urged Asian allies to ramp up military spending to counter China\u2019s growing power and prevent its dominance in the region, warning of \u201crightful alarm\u201d over its rapid military buildup.<\/p>\n
Hegseth, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia\u2019s premier forum for defence leaders, militaries and diplomats, said a stronger, more self-reliant network of allies is essential to deter aggression and preserve the balance of power.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is rightful alarm regarding China\u2019s historic military buildup and the expansion of its military activities in the region and beyond,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Pacific dominated by any hegemon would unravel the regional balance of power,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cNo state, including China, can impose its hegemony and hold the security or prosperity of our nation and our allies in question.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US expects its Asian allies and partners to increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP as it pledged a $1.5 trillion investment in its military, the Pentagon chief said.<\/p>\n
Hegseth stressed allies want stability, not escalation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they want, and what the United States delivers, is strength that is disciplined, resolve that is steady, and leadership that is confident enough to speak and walk softly while carrying a big stick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hegseth also struck a measured tone on US-China ties, saying relations are \u201cbetter than they have been in many years,\u201d with more frequent military-to-military engagement helping to manage tensions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are meeting more frequently with our Chinese counterparts by maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday urged Asian allies to ramp up military spending to counter China\u2019s growing power and prevent its dominance in the region, warning of \u201crightful alarm\u201d over its rapid military buildup. Hegseth, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia\u2019s premier forum for defence leaders, militaries and diplomats, said a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18292,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18290\/revisions\/18292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}