Rumsfeld lauds growing Asian security networks

[norml]

Rumsfeld lauds growing Asian security networks

By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
2 hours, 26 minutes ago


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday hailed an expanding network of multilateral security co-operation in Asia as a "welcome shift" in a region that has lacked institutions like NATO in Europe.

Joint actions against terrorism and piracy and disaster relief helped flesh out an Asian regional system that had long been based on U.S. bilateral alliances, the Pentagon chief told defense officials and experts gathered in Singapore.

"Now we see an expanding network of security co-operation in this region, both bilaterally between nations and multilaterally among nations, with the United States as a partner," he said.

"We see his as a welcome shift," Rumsfeld told the annual Shangri-La Dialogue in this Southeast Asian city-state.

The Pentagon has built close ties to Asian countries ranging from Mongolia to Vietnam, reached out to China and dramatically overhauled America's linchpin alliances with Japan and South Korea, he said.


snip


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060603/ts_nm/asia_security_dc

[sutz12]

1. I wonder....

how many of these new agreements really include us?