Hagatna, Guam – Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, has reaffirmed that the United States has committed to defending the Pacific Pacific territories and northern Mariana and said any attack on them would be an attack on the continent.
Hegseth led to Guam in Hawaii on Thursday as part of a regional tour, his first defense secretary, in which he seeks to consolidate longtime alliances to counter China.
In the midst of American-Chinese competition in the Pacific, Guam and the Commonwealth close to the Northern Mariana Islands, more and more significant to support American naval and air operations, in particular in the event of a conflict on Taiwan or in the Southern China Sea.
The two territories are within reach of Chinese and North Korean ballistic missiles and the United States tested a defense system in Guam in December.
Any attack on Guam and the northern islands of Mariana would have met an “appropriate response,” said Hegseth during his brief visit.
“We defend our homeland,” said Hegseth. “Guam and CNMI are vital parts of America and I want to be very clear – for everyone in this room, to cameras – any attack on these islands is an attack on the United States”
“We will continue to stay attached to our presence here,” said Hegseth. “It is important to emphasize: we are not looking for war with Communist China. But it is our work to ensure that we are ready. ”
Hegseth’s a week’s tour is preparing for a context of Chinese affirmation. Its coastal guard ships have repeatedly empowed in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines in the Sea of Southern China and around the Senkaku Islands under the control of the Japanese at the East China Sea.
His visit will be closely monitored in the Pacific for signs of the Trump administration’s commitment to traditional allies following a gap between Washington and Europe that has tested the transatlantic alliance for several decades.
The trip also threatens to be overshadowed by the repercussions of the revelations that HegSeth and other officials of national security have discussed the attacks on the Houthis of Yemen on the signal of the messaging application with a present journalist.
Located closer to Beijing than Hawaii, Guam is known as the “Pointe de la Lance”, with 10,000 soldiers, an air base for F-35 fighters and B-2 bombers and a reception port for Virginie class nuclear submarines.
Hegseth’s security promise is as a debate on the future of Guam that an American territory has intensified, with competing calls from certain residents for full state and non -compulsory decolonization, led by the Aboriginal Chamorro people.
The defense of Guam and the CNMI, said Hegseth, aligns with the objective of President Donald Trump to reach peace by force by putting America first “.
He delivered remarks to Andersen Air Force Base and made an air visit to Guam before meeting the governors of Guam and northern islands respectively, Louon Guerrero and Arnold Palacios.
Guerrero called on Hegseth about the “great impact” that the American military accumulation on Guam had on the residents of the island.
The Ministry of Defense controls approximately a quarter of Guam land and is preparing to spend billions to improve military infrastructure on the island while 5,000 other US navies move from the Japanese islands of Okinawa.
“We welcome you and we welcome the position and posture of the presidency of Trump,” Guerrero told Hegseth, during the opening declarations before their closed -door meeting.
“We are the center of gravity here. We are the second island defense chain, “she said. “We want to be a partner in the preparation effort, but national security cannot occur without the safety of human health.”
Guerrero asked for funding for a new hospital, estimated at $ 600 million.
“Our island needs a regional hospital capable of managing mass victims, whether from conflicts or natural disasters,” she told Hegseth.
Then Guerrero told journalists that she had not had time to discuss the housing crisis caused by American military accumulation.
Earlier this month, Guerrero warned in his address “island” of American negligence of the 160,000 residents of Guam, where one in five is estimated.
“Let’s be clear on this subject: Guam cannot be the screen of American security in Asia-Pacific so nearly 14,000 of our residents are homeless, because housing assistance in Guam is cut, or if 36,000 of our inhabitants lose access to Medicaid and coverage of Medicare keeping them healthy, alive and out of poverty,” said Guerrero.
At the end of his visit to Guam, Hegseth announced that he had also reached a “understanding” with President Wesley Simina of federated micronesia states for the planning and construction of US $ 400 million in military infrastructure in Yap State.
The Simina office would not confirm Benarnews that he had met Hegseth in Guam, only saying that he was “out of the island”.
As an American territory not constituted in society, Guam residents are American citizens but they cannot vote for the American president and their only delegate in the congress has no voting power.
Stefan Armbruster in Brisbane contributed to this story.
Benarnews is an online media affiliated with Radio Free Asia.