US Deputy Under Secretary of Defence (DUSD), Mr Richard P Lawless, visited Brunei for two days and talked on current security policies, past involvements, future engagements, exchanges of information and aims of his visit.
He came from two days of policy talks at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, for the third Asean Regional Forum (ARF) meeting, where ARF members discussed security policy issues.
"Brunei was very well represented at the meeting in KK. We had a very active discussion and we talked about defence, maritime security, peace keeping. Those were the key things of that event. So we're coming from that meeting with Brunei, where Brunei participated," he said.
On current issues, he said there were general discussions of the way US develops its security policy in a Roundtable Briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, last Saturday. Minister II Pehin Lim Jock Seng met DUSD Lawless.
"We shared our Quadrennial Defence Review (QDR), explained the QDR process, explained QDR documents released in February 2006, generally discussed standard security relationships between US and Brunei, and how we might find traditional ways to expand and further our relationship," he said.
Brunei is interested in expanding its contribution of its regional roles. With this there was further general discussion of Brunei's role in Asean, and how the Asean organisation is becoming and sustaining its leading role within greater Asean security arrangements, he said.
"We had a very good visit by His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam at the Pentagon in December 2002, and subsequently in May 2005 led by then Permanent Secretary Pehin Datu Singamanteri Col (L) Dato Paduka Hj Mohammad Yasmin bin Hj Umar, and so what we are doing is trying to sustain and expand the dialogue we have with Brunei.
"We're building on the recent visit made here by US Admiral (Adm) William J Fallon. We're sustaining the tempo that the US has established with later engagements with the Asean nations."
On future engagements, he said "the US plans on staying very deeply engaged in East Asia. And as we go through things like global posture review, and our QDR process review, in all these instances we are very mindful of our obligation to be actively engaged in Asia. We are mindful that many countries here in East Asia desire for US to be heavily engaged.
"We look forward to seeing Brunei's representation in the IISS, in early June in Singapore. Once again expanding the tempo of discussions."
The IISS gathering, known as the IISS Asia Security Summit or the Shangri-La Dialogue, is held every year in June in Singapore, with plenary sessions offer a platform for ministers and national security advisers to clarify and expand on government policy.
On exchanges of information, he said: "This (the visit) allows us today to explain how we do our national security planning, it also allows us to explain our transformation of US defence forces, and equally importantly, it allows us to explain changes in our global defence posture. This relates to how we are organised around the world, including Asia. So the meetings yesterday and today allow us to explain a lot of the details of how we changed our global defence posture internationally: where we are organised, where we are based, and how we plan to operate. So that is referred to as our global defence posture review.
"The changes that are to come out of that review, how we organise ourselves in Asia, defence officials and security officials, and foreign policy folks are very interested in understanding what the US is doing, and why it's doing it.
"Last but not least, (this visit) allows Brunei to explain to us what it's doing in its own defence transformation. And there is a process underway here which I believe Brunei is evolving its own defence planning and its own defence structure, so we are very interested in understanding what's going on there.
"What we are trying to do is show that we are determined to expand the relationship incrementally, modestly, we want to make sure that people understand that we very much desire to sustain a relationship with Brunei," Lawless said.
