U.S., China to Consider Sharing Resources During Joint Missions
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=118202
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12, 2012 – In what U.S. Pacific Command’s
logistics chief calls a groundbreaking development, officials from the
United States and China plan to meet to discuss sharing logistical
resources, including fuel, as they operate together during counterpiracy
and humanitarian assistance and disaster response missions.
The United States has officially extended the invitation for a team
of senior Chinese logisticians to visit Washington in early 2013 to
discuss the possibility of a first-ever logistics cooperation agreement
between the two countries, Air Force Brig. Gen. Mark M. McLeod told
American Forces Press Service.
If adopted, the arrangement would
enable the United States and China to share fuel, food, supplies, and
even vessel parts to support their joint operations, he said.
Pacom officials pitched the idea last month during the 41st Pacific Area Senior Officer Logistics Seminar in Perth, Australia.
The forum of senior logistics and national security officers from
Pacific, Asian and Indian Ocean area nations meets annually to exchange
information, pursue bilateral and multilateral initiatives and encourage
closer regional cooperation. This year, PASOLS participants focused on
ways to promote multinational and multiagency logistics collaboration.
Navy Rear Adm. Yang Jianyong, who led the Chinese delegation at this
year’s seminar, called the U.S. proposal “a good area for future
discussion [and] cooperation,” McLeod reported.
Such an arrangement was floated in the past, but didn’t get traction because of strained U.S.-Chinese relations.
But the timing could now be right, McLeod said, as both countries begin
looking for ways to strengthen their military-to-military relationship.
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Pacom commander Navy Adm. Samuel
J. Locklear III recently visited China to promote closer cooperation and
collaboration.
Logistics cooperation with China provides a
perfect forum for that relationship-building, McLeod said, particularly
as China assumes a growing global role. For example, in addition to
counterpiracy operations, China periodically deploys its naval hospital
ship, the Peace Ark, to provide medical services in other nations.
“As they go from an internal defense-focused military and begin to push
off their shores and take on more regional security roles, they are
finding that their logistics chains are kind of strained,” McLeod said.
PASOLS, and a potential logistics agreement with the United States,
offer China an opportunity to learn from the experience of the regional
partners it now operates with, he said.
“Based on them reaching
out and starting to perform some of these more joint missions that other
nations are doing,” he said, “we thought this was an opportunity for us
to enter into an agreement with them to share resources.”
McLeod called the potential agreement a great foundation for other
military-to-military cooperation that supports both the United States’
and China’s national security strategies.
“Obviously, both
militaries are interested in regional security. Both militaries are
interested in freedom of passage through areas. There are a lot of
things going where we share common interests,” he said.
“But this
is the first time, at least from a logistics standpoint, that we have
reached out and they have been very receptive to those ideas,” McLeod
said. “That is pretty groundbreaking for us.”
McLeod called these
developments important building blocks toward closer logistics
collaboration that enables regional nations to partner together and
respond more effectively to natural disasters and other contingencies.
Responses to regional natural disasters and other contingencies will be
far better, he said, if the nations understand how each other’s
operations, share basic principles and learn from each other’s
experiences. “There are things that each of us can bring to the fight
that ultimately helps all of us provide support,” he said.
McLeod
said he will share the lessons from PASOLS with the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations and other regional organizations. “What we are
trying to do is operationalize what we do in the theater by branching
out to some of these other large organizations,” he said.
Ultimately, he hopes to promote sharing arrangements that enable more
countries to participate in regional operations. “Many nations have
difficulty when they reach beyond their logistics chains and have to go
about gathering supplies and equipment,” he said.
Setting up an
infrastructure so nations can share resources, water, even cybersecurity
expertise could help eliminate that roadblock, he said.
But
McLeod said he sees particular promise in operationalizing fuel across
the theater. “That is an interest area that many, many nations have,
from our high-end partners all the way down to our developing partners
that are expanding their capabilities as they go forward,” he said.
“That helps you not only during operations, when transiting vessels or
operating equipment in that [particular] nation, but it [also] can be
important when there is a supply interruption because of a typhoon or
some other natural disaster,” McLeod said. “In essence, you diversify
your fuel capabilities so, no matter where you go, you have that
capacity.”
Photos of the day: China, U.S. conduct first joint anti-piracy drill
Insert Quote
China, U.S. conduct first joint anti-piracy drill
(Source: Xinhua) 2012-09-18
BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of National Defense
confirmed Monday that the Chinese and U.S. navies conducted their first
joint anti-piracy drill in the Gulf of Aden on the same day.
The drill, conducted by the Chinese missile frigate Yiyang and the U.S.
guided missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill, lasted for more than
five hours, the ministry said.
The drill was praised by the Chinese side as being conducive to
increasing mutual understanding and trust between the two navies and
deepening bilateral cooperation in non-conventional security fields.
Editor:Ouyang Dongmei
