The US Department of Defense is considering deploying a permanent naval task force in the Pacific to counter China. This was announced on Tuesday, June 15, according to the newspaper Politico, citing sources in the Pentagon.
According to the interlocutors of the publication, the Pacific group can be formed by analogy with the permanent NATO naval forces in the Atlantic created in 1968.
At the moment, it is not known whether only American ships will be included in the group or whether the participation of other countries is envisaged.
It is noted that the initiative was the result of the work of the task force on China created at the Pentagon on behalf of President Joe Biden, which recently submitted recommendations to the head of the Defense Department, Lloyd Austin.
"We are considering a number of proposals for the Indo-Pacific region in order to better coordinate our actions. < ... > The head of the Pentagon said that now there is time to work, there are many details that need to be finalized,"the source said.
On June 9, Austin signed an internal directive providing for a number of initiatives to counter China, some of which are classified.
Earlier, on June 15, it was reported that the leaders of the 30 member states of the North Atlantic Alliance at the summit in Brussels began the process of developing a new basic document — the Strategic Concept of NATO, which they plan to approve in 2022. For the first time in history, China was identified as a potential threat to the security of the bloc.
