{"id":32009,"date":"2026-08-10T11:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/32009\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T11:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:43:15","slug":"us-not-disengaging-from-asia-seeks-partners-not-protectorates-says-pentagon-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/32009\/","title":{"rendered":"US not disengaging from Asia, seeks &#8216;partners, not protectorates,&#8217; says Pentagon official"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Official reiterates US\u00a0interest in \u200bregion as he called for greater burden-sharing and &#8216;partnership, \u2060not dependency&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby attends a NATO Defence Ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 12, 2026. PHOTO: REUTERS   <\/p>\n<p>The United States is not disengaging from Asia and is instead &#8220;digging in&#8221; to maintain \u200ba favourable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, but \u200cwants its partners to shoulder more responsibility for their defence, a senior Pentagon official said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Seeking to counter concerns about Washington&#8217;s reliability, Elbridge Colby, \u200bUndersecretary of Defence for Policy, reiterated the US\u00a0interest in \u200bthe region as he called for greater burden-sharing and &#8220;partnership, \u2060not dependency&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;America is definitely not disengaging from Asia,&#8221; Colby said \u200bin a speech in Manila. &#8220;We are not leaving; in fact, we \u200bare digging in to ensure a favourable balance of power where it matters most.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Philippines, the United States&#8217; oldest treaty ally in Asia, is the first \u200bstop on a Southeast Asian trip that also will take \u200bColby to Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.<\/p>\n<p>Read:\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/tribune.com.pk\/story\/2623066\/iran-ties-hormuz-reopening-to-us-concessions-on-several-demands\" target=\"_blank\">Iran says no reason to fear Pakistan-Turkey-Saudi security pact<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Colby said maintaining a favourable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific required a &#8220;posture of deterrence by denial along the First Island Chain&#8221; and pointed to what he described as a growing US\u00a0military commitment in the region.<\/p>\n<p>The First Island Chain refers to \u200ban area stretching \u200bfrom Japan down \u2060to Taiwan, the Philippines and Borneo.<\/p>\n<p>The strategy could not rest on American forces alone, he said, \u200barguing that allies should invest more in their security.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When \u200bwe \u2060ask our allies and partners to step up, to invest more in their own defence, and to take responsibility for their own sovereign \u2060security, \u200bwe are not signalling abandonment,&#8221; Colby said. &#8220;We \u200bare looking for partners, not protectorates.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When our partners are strong, deterrence is strong,&#8221; he \u200badded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Official reiterates US\u00a0interest in \u200bregion as he called for greater burden-sharing and &#8216;partnership, \u2060not dependency&#8217; US Undersecretary of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2893],"class_list":["post-32009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-latest"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117071039872577585","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}