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Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
The website of the US Department of Defense cited the Pentagon spokesperson George Little as saying that Mr. Panetta to visit Vietnam and India following the International Institute for Strategic Studies Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 30.
On the way to Asia, he will visit with head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III, at his headquarters in Hawaii, as well as with service members assigned there.
The secretary then flies to Singapore to deliver remarks at the opening plenary session of the Shangri-La Dialogue where he is expected to speak about U.S. defense policy in Asia-Pacific.
He will also hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Singapore, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and other nations.
Panetta will then travel to Vietnam for a two-day visit. “The United States has a long-term commitment to advancing a strong bilateral defense relationship with Vietnam that is based on mutual trust and understanding,” Little said. “This visit will afford us an opportunity to continue to work on that very important relationship.”
Panetta will go on to India for a two-day visit.
Little stressed the central role of the Asia-Pacific region in U.S. strategic guidance. “The secretary, when he was last in Asia, previewed much of that strategy,” he said. “He talked about the United States being a Pacific nation and a Pacific power.”
The Asia-Pacific region is vital to U.S. national security interests and will be in the future, Little said.
“We are absolutely turning toward the Asia-Pacific as a place where our strategic interests are increasingly of importance,” he said. “Our partnerships … in the region are critical. And we’re going to continue to invest in those relationships.”
He will be the fourth Secretary of Defense to make this trip – William Cohen visited in March 2000, followed by Donald Rumsfeld's 2006 visit, and Richard Gates' visit in 2010.
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