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US presence remains critical for stability in Asia, says Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen
Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen (right) meeting US Senator John McCain, chairman of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, in Washington
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Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen (right) meeting US Senator John McCain, chairman of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, in Washington. (via The Straits Times/ANN) (right) meeting US Senator John McCain, chairman of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, in Washington. (via The Straits Times/ANN)
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span class="inline inline-center">Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen (right) meeting US Senator John McCain, chairman of the United States Senate Armed Services Committee, in Washington. (via The Straits Times/ANN)
Even amid sweeping geopolitical change around the world, the United States presence in the Asia-Pacific remains critical for peace and stability in the region, Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen said in Washington on Wednesday.
Delivering a speech at an event organized by the Center for a New American Security, the visiting Defense Minister stressed that Singapore continues to believe in the importance of US engagement in the region and urged the country to "continue to provide clear and consistent signals and commit physically to remain engaged in this region".
He said that the belief in the US role was part of the reason behind the enduring military ties between the two countries.
"This was also why in 2012, my ministry agreed to then US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta's request for the US to rotationally deploy up to four littoral combat ships to Singapore. I would also like to announce that in response to US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter's request, Singapore has similarly agreed to support the rotational deployments of the US' P-8 aircraft to Singapore," he said.
The week-long deployment of the surveillance aircraft to Singapore had been making headlines this week as experts debated the significance of the move to US posture in the South China Sea.
On Wednesday, Dr Ng also stressed that stability in the region could not be ensured by the acts of the US alone, and said that stakeholders in the region needed to build up strategic trust.
That meant confidence building measures and joint exercises among militaries in the region. In the context of the South China Sea, he said it also meant all parties having to adhere to the Declaration of Conduct while a binding Code of a Conduct is being negotiated.
He said: "It is hard to conceive of trust in the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea when the Declaration of Conduct is not observed. Prolonged and unresolved South China Sea disputes will weaken strategic trust in the region."
Asked about extremism during the dialogue that followed, Dr Ng said radicalisation was a "clear and present danger" for the region.
He noted, for instance, that the number of sympathisers of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in South-east Asia in the last three years had exceeded the number of Al-Qaeda supporters in the region during the decade it was influential.
In recent months there have been reports hundreds of foreign fighters from the region heading to join ISIS, including a handful from Singapore.
Dr Ng is wrapping up a five-day visit to Washington, DC, where he signed an enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, and met a host of high-ranking US officials and congressmen. He now heads to Arizona to visit the Exercise Forging Sabre that the Singapore military is conducting there. (kes)
