Preparing for a conflict over Taiwan should be prioritized over any other potential threats, a document signed by Peter Hegseth reportedly says
A newly issued internal Pentagon document setting priorities for the US armed forces reportedly calls for focusing on preparing for a potential conflict with China and leaving all other potential “threats,” such as Russia and Iran to America’s allies, the Washington Post has claimed.
The nine-page paper, dubbed the Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance, effectively narrowed down the US defense strategy in the Indo-Pacific region to a single scenario that would require the American military to prevent Beijing from establishing full control over Taiwan through military means, according to WaPo.
“China is the Department’s sole pacing threat, and denial of a Chinese fait accompli seizure of Taiwan — while simultaneously defending the U.S. homeland is the Department’s sole pacing scenario,” the “secret” document obtained by the media outlet said. According to WaPo, Beijing was named as the only potential enemy in a “major power war” that Washington needs to plan contingencies for.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously described China as the main defense priority for the US. Beijing also expressed its concerns about a shift in Washington’s approach to Taiwan after the US State Department dropped from its fact sheet a statement on not supporting the island’s independence. China considers the self-governing island an inalienable part of its territory and most of the world adheres to Beijing’s stance.
Apart from a potential conflict with China, the paper also tells the military to focus on the threats from the “near abroad” and be “ready to defend American interests wherever they might be threatened in our hemisphere, from Greenland, to the Panama Canal, to Cape Horn.” The US Army should also shift its counterterrorism activities to fighting groups capable of striking the US directly and deprioritize those that are only active in far away regions, the WaPo reported.
Other potential “threats” supposedly posed by nations such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea should henceforth be dealt with by US allies, the document reportedly states. In particular, it says that Washington is unlikely to provide any substantial assistance to its allies in Europe in case of a confrontation with Russia.
The document calls for European NATO members to significantly increase their share of the collective defense burden that would supposedly “ensure NATO can reliably deter or defeat Russian aggression even if deterrence fails and the United States is already engaged in, or must withhold forces to deter, a primary conflict in another region.”
Moscow has repeatedly stated that it has no intention to attack the US-led bloc but warned that NATO’s active involvement in the ongoing Ukraine conflict poses a risk of a direct confrontation with Russia.
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