WASHINGTON - The Secretary of the United States Navy has called for the Navy to establish a new fleet closer to the intersect of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
"So we're going to create the First Fleet," he said."And we're going to put it, if not Singapore right out of the chocks, we're going to look to make it more expeditionary-oriented and move it across the Pacific until it is where our allies and partners see that it could best assist them as well as to assist us."
His remarks came even as the US Pacific Fleet tweeted a picture of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group joining phase two of the annual Malabar naval exercises in the northern Arabian Sea alongside the navies of Australia, India and Japan, on Nov 17. The four countries make up the group called the Quad - short for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.
"The Indo Pacific is here to stay for the US military as can be seen from the gradual progression: Fonops and capacity building of allies," Dr Pande said. "If the US Navy goes ahead with establishing a First Fleet in the Indian Ocean Region, it will reaffirm that Washington continues to view Asia strategy through an 'Indo-Pacific' lens, that is, not just focusing on the Western Pacific," Mr Grossman told The Straits Times.
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