Pompeo said the force posture would be dictated by ground realities.
The US is reviewing its global deployment of forces to ensure that it is “postured appropriately” to counter the growing Chinese military threat to countries like India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.
Pompeo’s comments come at a time when India and China are in a border standoff since early May, and are being viewed as a significant security posture.
Speaking in response to a question during the virtual Brussels Forum 2020 of the German Marshall Fund on Thursday night, Pompeo said, “We’re going to make sure we’re postured appropriately to counter the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). We think that the challenge of our times, and we’re going to make sure we have resources in place to do that.”
The force posture review at the direction of President Donald Trump, as part of which the US is reducing the number of its troops in Germany from about 52,000 to 25,000, he said.
Pompeo said the force posture would be dictated by ground realities. “In certain places there will be fewer American resources. There will be other places — I just talked about the threat from the Chinese Communist Party, so now threats to India, threats to Vietnam, threats to Malaysia, Indonesia, South China Sea challenges, the Philippines,” he said.
Trump had last month offered to “mediate or arbitrate” the border dispute between India and China, saying he was “ready, willing and able” to ease the tensions.