The Association of the United States Army Institute of Land Warfare conducted a symposium and exposition here in Honolulu, Hawaii. Now on it’s second year, this year’s focus is on “Land Forces: Assuring Security and Stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific” region.
This 3-day event will include dialogue on how to ensure that land forces in the region are capable to respond in cases of conflict or need for humanitarian assistance.
General Vincent Brooks, Commanding General of the United States Army Pacific, delivered the keynote presentation. When asked on the ongoing negotiations on enhanced defense cooperation between the US and the Philippines, Gen. Brooks emphasized that the primary objective is not to establish a US military base.
GENERAL VINCENT BROOKS, COMMANDING GENERAL, US ARMY PACIFIC : “I don’t know where we stand on discussions about foreign basing, that is not something that the US Army is asking for at the present time. We do look for places to store equipment especially equipment that can respond to disaster and crisis. I the case of the Haiyan response, there was equipment that had been stored in the Philippines that made it important in shortening the response time or keeping key pieces of equipment there, often engineering equipment, sometimes medical equipment and supplies, these types of things are what we’re looking for.”
The US is conscious of the possible effects and repercussions of this bilateral agreement amid the present tension in the region but hopes that transparency in the negotiations will avoid conflict or misunderstanding.
GENERAL VINCENT BROOKS, COMMANDING GENERAL, US ARMY PACIFIC : Any arrangement that happens between countries has a consequence on other countries and that is an important one. We want to have a framework where there is dialogue among nations in this case the Philippines and the US. We do that with the mindset that we do have to do it transparently even while we’re doing it bilaterally. This is the kind of framework we’re looking for where there is conflict in the pursuit of an agreement, dialogue among nations matter. The absence of dialogue among nations can become a cause for miscalculation, misunderstanding or even conflict and there are plenty of examples throughout the region including the Philippines, with unresolved issues with sovereignty matters being overlapped. What we’re looking for is a framework for dialogue that makes it possible to work out not through the use of force.
This year, about 13 countries from the region sent delegations to this year’s conference. A number of exhibitors demonstrated some of their state-of-the-art equipment that are being utilized by land forces from different countries in the region.
Gen. Brooks emphasized that land forces remain essential to security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. This is yet another example of President Obama’s placing of diplomatic and economic priority in this part of the world.
Des Acenas, EBC International Correspondent in Honolulu, Hawaii
