Seoul, Oct 28 (IANS) US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth will visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas and also meet with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung during his visit to the Asian country next week, a senior US defence official said Tuesday.
Hegseth is set to kick off a two-day visit to South Korea next Monday in his first trip to the Asian country since taking office early this year. Korea is the last leg of his Asia swing that includes stops in Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Upon arrival in Korea, the secretary, along with Seoul’s Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back, plans to visit the Joint Security Area (JSA) inside the DMZ and have a chance to meet Korean and American troops stationed at the DMZ, the official said during a briefing to the press traveling with Hegseth, Yonhap News Agency reported.
It will mark the first joint visit to the JSA by the allies’ defence chiefs since October 2017, when then Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo and then US Defence Secretary James Mattis visited the area.
The centerpiece of his visit to South Korea is the two countries’ annual defence dialogue, called the Security Consultative Meeting (SCM), slated to take place at the defence ministry in Seoul on Nov. 4, the official said. He also plans to have a meeting with Lee while in Seoul.
“These discussions will further advance consultations on alliance modernization, including defence spending, and the ROK assuming the primary responsibility for the alliance’s conventional defence against North Korea,” the official said. ROK is short for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
After the SCM, the secretary and Ahn will announce an expansion of defence industrial cooperation, the official said. He did not elaborate.
During the defence talks, the two sides are expected to discuss a range of pending issues, including Seoul’s push to retake wartime operational control and Washington’s call for the Asian ally to increase defence spending and take on a greater burden for regional security as they seek to “modernize” their decades-old alliance.
During his stay in Korea, he will also visit Camp Humphreys, a sprawling US military base some 65 kilometers south of Seoul, to thank service members and families, according to him.
Hegseth’s trip to Asia will come as the Pentagon is redoubling calls for Indo-Pacific allies to contribute more to “collective defence” in the midst of an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry over maritime security, trade and technological leadership, to name a few.
The official said that threats from China will be a “major” theme through all his engagements during the trip.
“The department continues to prioritize deterring China,” he said. “The secretary asked the department to focus on reestablishing deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. We very much remain focused on that.”
In Tokyo on Wednesday, Hegseth plans to have a bilateral meeting with new Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi to discuss efforts to increase defence capabilities, upgrade the two countries’ respective command and control frameworks and improve bilateral training and exercises, according to the official.
In Kuala Lumpur, the secretary plans to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus, known as ADMM-Plus, a premier regional defence forum, and join a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings with his counterparts from countries including Malaysia, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia.
Arriving in Hanoi on Sunday, Hegseth will meet Vietnamese Defence Minister Phan Van Giang. He also plans to meet other senior leaders in Vietnam.
“The secretary will focus on the steps the department is taking to reestablish deterrence in the region by strengthening our posture, having combat credible force posture forward, and working with our allies and partners to bolster their defence capabilities,” the official said.
“He will emphasize the importance of our allies increasing their contributions to our collective defence.”
–IANS
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