May 30th 2003
Defense ministers and military chiefs from Asia and key Western powers are to gather in Singapore Friday for a conference on security.
The British and Australian defense ministers, as well as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz are attending the meeting which will focus on new terrorist threats and the North Korean nuclear crisis. Mr. Wolfowitz is scheduled to speak to the Asian Security Conference about how U.S. defense policy in Asia is changing.
A report in the Los Angeles Times newspaper Thursday says the U.S. military is planning a broad realignment of troops in Asia, including establishing new bases in Australia and increasing the U.S. military presence in Singapore and Malaysia. The report also says the plan would include a transfer of some troops away from the border between North and South Korea, and out of the Japanese island of Okinawa.
But a spokesperson at the Pentagon tells VOA the Los Angeles Times story is overstated. The spokesperson says a lot of ideas are being discussed, but that there are no definite plans for a troop realignment. The newspaper cited a senior administration official who refused to be identified.
