Asian security: where there’s fire, there’s Ash

Asian security: where there’s fire, there’s Ash

http://espresso.economist.com/dd922f3a3bd75a98545943530bedd7e2

 

America’s secretary of defence, Ash Carter, will visit Vietnam and India this week, boosting military ties with both, and, in the process, doubtless reinforcing China’s suspicion that the United States is out to contain it. At both stops, Mr Carter is to sign co-operation agreements. Behind the military rapprochement with both Vietnam, a former enemy, and India, once reliant on the former Soviet Union for its most advanced weaponry, is the fear inspired by the rise of China. That anxiety clouded this weekend’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, an annual forum for Asia-Pacific defence ministers, attended by Mr Carter. Discussions were dominated by China’s building spree around disputed reefs and rocks in the South China Sea, which is turning them into disputed man-made islands. Mr Carter and others demanded an “immediate and lasting halt” to this. China insisted it is within its rights, and blamed America for stirring up trouble.​