Asia-Pacific; US DOD working toward networked Indo-Pacific

When Defense Secretary Dr. Mark T. Esper talks about the Indo-Pacific he talks about it becoming a “networked region” — not in the information technology sense, but as like-minded countries working together.

India's Pacific opportunity – Aspenia Online

His travels to the region this week and previously are to encourage this concept, said David Helvey, performing the duties of assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization binds together 30 nations in collective defense, but there is no comparable treaty organization in the Indo-Pacific. In the region, the United States has a series of bilateral, treaty-based alliance relationships and a set of partnerships. “When we talk about promoting a networked region, we’re talking about building the relationships we have not only with our allies and partners, we’re promoting the contacts, coordination, integration [among] our allies and partners themselves,” Helvey said.

“Sometimes that involves us, sometimes them, working together in support of shared interests.”

The bottom line is a set of like-minded allies and partners who share values to support the principles of a free and open Indo-Pacific. “We are committing resources to work together to support it, uphold it and promote its resilience,” he said.

There are examples of this process. The nations of the region cooperate in enforcement of United Nations Security Council resolutions on North Korea. The United States, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia work together to pool resources and share information. This supports implementation of sanctions against North Korea.

Another example is Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines working together in the Sulu Sea to combat piracy, human trafficking and terrorism in that area. Singapore is another nation working with allies through its maritime fusion center or its new counterterrorism information facility.

Asia-Pacific; US DOD working toward networked Indo-Pacific

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