President Barack Obama will travel to the Asia-Pacific in late April in an effort to increase diplomatic, economic, and security engagements in the region, announced White House press secretary Jay Carney on Feb. 12. Specifically, Obama will visit Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Topics slated for discussion include modernizing the 54-year-old alliance between the US and Japan as well as the defense alliance with the Philippines; recent developments in North Korea; and “combined efforts to promote denuclearization,” said Carney.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…