Transcript: Admiral Blair Lauds Southeast Asian Anti-Terror Efforts
(Bangkok Press Roundtable with U.S. Pacific forces commander) (4970) Virtually all of the nations in Southeast Asia are joining the worldwide fight against terrorism, says Admiral Dennis C. Blair, the U.S. Commander in Chief of all U.S. forces in the Pacific (CINCPAC). During a press roundtable in Bangkok November 16, Blair told reporters that "in most of the countries in this part of the world there are governments and countries who share our condemnation of terrorism and we are working together with governments to root it out." "Virtually all of the countries in the region have offered actual help" in the form of material support to fight terrorist networks, Blair said. The ASEAN Regional Initiative, he added, is one of the "very important parts of this anti-terrorism campaign." Thailand, he noted, is making greater efforts on improving procedures dealing with immigration, money laundering, and aviation safety. Thailand and the United States, he said, "cooperate in a very fruitful way because we share the same goals and we work together towards the same ends." The U.S. Pacific Command, Blair said, has deployed "a considerable number" of its forces to the Arabian Sea and the Gulf area to support the anti-terrorist campaign. Nonetheless, defenses in the Pacific region have been increased, he said. "Throughout the region we have increased security not only on our bases but the support and defense that we provide to other citizens of the United States," he said. In addition, there has been an "intensification of the campaign against the terrorist cells and their supporters" in the Asia-Pacific region. Following is a transcript of the event: (begin transcript) Admiral Dennis C. Blair, CINCPAC Press Roundtable Bangkok, Thailand November 16, 2001 Moderator: Good Morning. I'll be very brief just welcoming Admiral Blair again to Thailand. He will be here until sometime this weekend, departing. He came here from the Philippines. Admiral Blair will give a brief opening statement and then we'll turn it over to the floor for questions. The briefing is on the record unless the Admiral indicates otherwise. Adm. Blair: This is my first visit to Southeast Asia since September 11th, and as Kathy mentioned I started in the Philippines, then here in Thailand, will go to Japan, then Malaysia, then to Indonesia and India. And the primary topic that I'm addressing with our allies and partners is our combined efforts in the campaign against terrorism, which really began after September 11th. But that's by no means the only topic because our relations with countries like Thailand really go across the board of many common challenges from peacekeeping operations in East Timor to through the counter-drug activities that we support, through of course our mutual defense treaty, so it still remains a rich relationship that has many, many facets to it. I've had good discussions in Bangkok the last couple of days with the Foreign Minister and Defense Minister. Today I will be meeting with my military colleagues at Supreme Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters and then seeing the Prime Minister this evening. I'd say a quick word about our cooperation with Thailand against terrorism. The global campaign against terrorism has a military component and in Afghanistan the military component is dominant as we're conducting this campaign, which has had a very successful recent phase to push al Qaeda and their Taliban supporters out of the country. But in most of the countries in this part of the world there are governments and countries who share our condemnation of terrorism and we are working together with governments to root it out. Here in Thailand the efforts on checking immigration procedures, on money laundering, on aviation safety, on combined intelligence work, on combined police work are really the major part of the campaign and our military consultations are really part of that multi-agency international effort. There's also a very important regional component here in Southeast Asia that the United States doesn't have a role in and that's the ASEAN Regional Initiative which started from the summit conference in Brunei a couple of weeks ago; it was followed up by a meeting of ASEAN army chiefs in Manila yesterday; and one of the I think very important parts of this anti-terrorism campaign is this association of Southeast Asia Nations Initiative. So good cooperation, good meetings so far, and I'd just like to emphasize that this is really just one in a string of issues in which we and Thailand cooperate in a very fruitful way because we share the same goals and we work together towards the same ends. Let me stop there and take questions that you may have. Question: Any particular requests from your side to Thailand in particular? Adm. Blair: What I have found is that the activities that are already underway with Thailand and the United States simply need to be directed and intensified in order to combat terrorism. For instance the cooperation we have had on countering narcotics has really led the way in terms of sharing of intelligence between military forces on the one hand and police forces on the other. We had really pioneered that sort of exchange in the counter-drug business and expanding that to the counter-terrorism goal is a logical step. The money laundering area is one which is not of direct concern militarily, but when I talk with my colleagues at the embassy I find that, again, that's an area which was originally conceived for countering international crime and for countering drug profits, and that's being turned towards countering terrorism. So I would say in general my requests of Thailand and the Royal Thai Armed Forces have been more in the line of intensifying and focusing on mechanisms already underway than in entirely new areas. Question: You said that most countries in the region have supported the anti-terrorism efforts in Afghanistan. Which countries haven't? Which countries perhaps have been a little bit deficient? Adm. Blair: Did I say most? I meant all. If I go around the region just sort of starting in the north, both Korea and Japan have offered active assistance including military forces quite unprecedented in the case of Japan, which has some ships underway, now headed towards the Indian Ocean. In Southeast Asia the provision of overflight rights and logistics support has been offered by the Philippines, by Thailand, by Singapore. Indonesia has given overflight rights, which we have needed to get our forces from the United States and the Pacific into the Indian Ocean and the North Arabian Sea. In South Asia the cooperation with India has really been quite unprecedented as India's naval logistic support has been offered and accepted. Australia and New Zealand have offered actual forces. An Australian ship and aircraft are in the Gulf region. New Zealand has offered special forces and I think a medical unit. So virtually all of the countries in the region have offered actual help. China has, as you know, supported the campaign. We have had some I would say fairly preliminary intelligence exchanges with China to share information on international terrorism. North Korea has even, in the inimitable North Korean way, said that they're against this kind of international terrorism also. So virtually all of the governments in the region have offered support. So too have Malaysia and Indonesia. There is no doubt that there are groups in many countries who oppose what the United States is doing. I believe there was a demonstration here in Bangkok held last Sunday, which opposed our policy in Afghanistan. Indonesia, there have been protests outside our embassy. There are voices in Malaysia that also say we're doing the wrong thing in Afghanistan. This is what happens in democracies. But the governments have offered and provided assistance, and the region has really I think come together in this war, which is on behalf of all of us. Question: Admiral, if I can move tangentially just a bit, there was a report in the Pakistani newspaper a couple of days ago that the U.S. would be providing helicopters to Nepal where there is an active Maoist insurgency. I wonder when you talk about assistance in the Philippines, for example, the counter-terrorism kind of approach to the Abu Sayyaf group, are similar activities taking place elsewhere in Asia? For example in Nepal and Bhutan? Adm. Blair: The Maoist insurgency in Nepal of course goes back a fair amount and Nepal has requested assistance in order to conduct their campaign against that insurgency. The U.S. response to that is under active consideration right now in Washington and all the pieces of it haven't really been worked out yet. But I think you make a good point. The groups that use terrorism in the region are a wide group. There's the LTTE in Sri Lanka, which has used it for many years. There is the ASG group, the Aum Shinrikyo group a number of years ago in Japan actually used weapons of mass destruction against Japanese citizens. And the United States has been involved in different ways against many of these groups. The real focus of the current campaign is against groups like al Qaeda which -- Question: Transnationals? Adm. Blair: International really more than transnational. And as a first target of attack, those who have really declared war on the United States and those who support them. But the other groups which are using terror as a weapon to try to attack governments of countries and people we also give assistance of various kinds for. Question: You said the help from Japan was very strong. Has Japan crossed some sort of threshold, some sort of watershed now in becoming a more active player militarily? Adm. Blair: I think Japan has taken a significant step as seen by the passage of legislation by the Diet which authorizes activities which previously were outside the area of permitted activities. The concept of collective defense was one which the Japanese had not followed heretofore. I think the Japanese have accomplished this in a very proper fashion. Prime Minister Koizumi made trips to several countries in the region to explain what Japan was doing. Took a trip to China, took a trip to South Korea, two countries in which the historical issues are very strong with Japan. Was careful to make it a very transparent, open process with support from the Japanese people as well as informing other countries in the region, and has now taken the steps of deploying ships and is also making some medical aid available, has offered to play a leading role in the reconstruction of Afghanistan once the fighting phase is over. So I think yes, this is a new step for Japan and one which the countries in the region are understanding of in most cases, if not actually supporting, as is my government. Question: Talking about the Cobra Gold Exercise in the coming year, can you expect some change or adaptation of this joint military exercise in order to be in line with the present campaign against terrorism? Adm. Blair: I think there are areas in which we can apply the multilateral skills which we're developing in this region to the counter-terrorism war. I know that out of the ASEAN summit initiative of about ten days ago the concept of a command post exercise utilizing the armed forces in a counter-terrorism scenario was endorsed, and we are talking with the countries about how we can support that. In our Cobra Gold exercise here in Thailand, we and Thailand are looking at the concept of a portion of that exercise which would address a counter-terrorism set of skills. So the answer is yes. We -- like most things we do in the armed forces -- we will be practicing this together in order to be better ready to handle it. And it will be a module that's adapted to the terrorist threat that we face here in this region, which is not an Afghanistan-like situation. It's more smaller cells. The Abu Sayyaf group in the Philippines is an example of a terrorist group in this part of the world that poses that sort of a threat. Question: A quick follow-up, did you raise this issue with the Defense Minister yesterday? And in this context, what did he say? Adm. Blair: I talked about it with various Thai leaders and they share this idea that we should be practicing this sort of activity. Question: Admiral, can command developments in the war in Afghanistan, can you anticipate how long it will take? Adm. Blair: Those military operations in Afghanistan are being conducted by another command, not by the Pacific Command, so I don't follow them in tactical detail. But just from the accounts that are available to all of us, the recent developments are certainly very positive. I'm struck by things like the rejoicing and the elation of the people in Kabul when they no longer had the Taliban government there. I'm struck by the quick international response in support of the Afghanistan people to bring security and the essentials of life back to that country again. So I think that the news from Afghanistan in recent days is certainly good, and I know from my conversations with my fellow military leaders that our intention is to conduct a precise campaign, make it as short as we can, cause as little suffering to the civilians who are caught in the combat zone as possible and bring them assistance as quickly as possible. We recognize that this campaign may have to go on into the Ramadan period in order to be finished quickly so we can bring relief to the people of Afghanistan, but I know the commanders are conducting it with the full awareness of what the needs of the people of Afghanistan are and what the significance of Ramadan is. So I think it's been good news recently, and it's good news for the people of Afghanistan. Question: Have the events of September 11th and the counter-terrorism campaign following had any specific impact on your own command, on the Pacific Command? As you say, you're not directly involved. I wonder if there is any change of substance taking place in your own command as a consequence. Adm. Blair: I'd say there are about three things that I'd point to. Number one is we have deployed a considerable number of our forces to the Arabian Sea and the Gulf area to support the campaign. Two carrier battle groups, an amphibious ready group, a number of Air Force reconnaissance and other aircraft. They are participating in the campaign right now. This has also meant that we have to reevaluate our deterrence responsibilities here in the Pacific. For example in Korea when we sent the carrier Kitty Hawk to the Indian Ocean we brought in Air Force aircraft behind it so that we maintained deterrence, early combat capability on the Korean Peninsula. So there's been that sort of force effect. The second effect has been to increase our defenses in the Pacific region. When I woke up at 4:00 o'clock in the morning on September 11th there were 20 airliners that were still on their way to Honolulu and as it turned out there were no hijacking teams on any of those 20, but throughout the region we have increased security not only on our bases but the support and defense that we provide to other citizens of the United States since now targets are not just embassies and ships and military forces the way they were in the past. Also we've, in cooperation with the local countries, increased the defenses of our bases in Japan and Korea, for example. So that's really been the second effect. The third effect has been the one that I'm here in Thailand to talk about which is the really intensification of the campaign against the terrorist cells and their supporters in this part of the world which is an interagency effort within the United States. My forces, the Department of Justice, intelligence agencies, Department of the Treasury. Then working with counterpart organizations in countries like Thailand and others. So I'd say those are really the three ways that it has affected us in the Pacific Command. Question: Just by way of follow-up with reference to your first point about deployment of forces and so on, is the U.S. still committed to maintaining the capability to fight two major wars at the same time? Or is that, with the Quadrennial Defense Review and all that, is that still a core U.S. policy? Adm. Blair: However you slice the words, the United States has vital interests like alliances and major economic interests in at least three parts of the world, and we maintain the ability to prosecute an active combat in one area and to be able to maintain deterrence or if necessary fight in another area at the same time. So in the past when we were heavily engaged in the Balkans, for example, we still had what we needed to maintain deterrence here in the Pacific, in the Korea region, for example. The same holds true now. So although some of the narrow definitions may change, the ability to be able to support our interests in multiple parts of the world are still there, and that's very much true today. Question: In Thailand there are some (unintelligible) as when the U.S.' campaign against terrorists. It would be under (unintelligible) on the war of (unintelligible) still a big problem in the country. Will you indicate, reaffirm what the U.S. will be providing in assistance to the war against drugs in Thailand? Adm. Blair: I'm sorry, you're saying there's worry that the war on terrorism would weaken support for the war on drugs? Question: (inaudible) The war against terrorism is (unintelligible) the war against the drugs unequity. Adm. Blair: I understand. What I'm finding is that this, and I've talked about them before, these seams of lawlessness in the world are breeding grounds for many forms of activity which undermines our societies. I'm talking about narcotics, I'm talking about terrorism, I'm talking about illegal immigration, I'm talking about international crime. These sorts of activities breed in these areas in which governments are unable to maintain their authority and the illegal parts of society are able to find sanctuary, to gather financial resources, to organize their efforts. Then they attack the citizens and societies of countries here in Southeast Asia and the activities reach out as far as the United States. So I find that the cooperative efforts that we are making with many countries in the region to narrow and strangle these seams of lawlessness contribute to improvements in all of these separate campaigns -- drugs, terrorism, illegal immigration, and the rest. I think it's also important to remember that it can't be simply a military campaign. This is very clear to me when I visited Zamboanga a couple of days ago talking with the Mayor of Zamboanga. The military and police forces can provide security but they can't provide a long-term solution for these seams of lawlessness. Similarly in Afghanistan once the military phase of the campaign is complete I think it's very, very important that the peacekeeping and the economic development side of this campaign kick in immediately. Here in this region East Timor is probably another excellent example of what was originally a military and security problem and has quickly, or is now three years later transitioning into an economic and a governmental development effort to put that country on its feet. So I think the skills and the role of the armed forces is really complementary in all of these ways, and the better we can do it the safer and more secure will be our citizens and our societies. Question: Admiral, could you say a little about how the war on terrorism will affect contacts between the U.S. and China? Do you see this as an opportunity to broaden military-to-military contact? Adm. Blair: I think it's an area in which the United States and China are realizing that cooperation is in both of our interest and I hope we can build on it to have a more cooperative relationship in the military sphere as well. I will tell you frankly that in most of my dealings with the Chinese armed forces when I visit and when they visit me, we have conversations about Taiwan which takes up most of the conversation. But if you take a step back from it, the areas in which the United States and China can cooperate including military cooperation, are fairly numerous. They are, in peacekeeping for example, Thailand and the United States invited China last year to observe the Cobra Gold exercise. They did not accept the invitation, but I think that China should have a role in common enterprises like peacekeeping in East Timor or peacekeeping in other areas of the world. Talking with my Thai colleagues over the last couple of days I hear about some progress that's been made with Chinese participation in the drug campaign here in Southeast Asia. There doesn't appear to be a major PLA part of that yet, but there could and should be as well. Simple things like search and rescue cooperation. I was disappointed in the EP-3 incident earlier this year when the Chinese pilot was lost at sea after he ran into our EP-3. We offered search and rescue assistance to the Chinese. We had forces which could have joined in the search and helped there, but the procedures were not well established that we could do that. So I see that there are areas where the PLA and the armed forces of the United States could cooperate whenever it's in both of our interests, and those area would go beyond simple visits and taking pictures and giving toasts to real cooperation on real common missions. And I would hope that the campaign against terrorism would be able to provide that kind of an opportunity. Question: Just as a follow-up, do you have any sense from the Chinese yet that they're willing to expand contacts in the ways that you're suggesting? Adm. Blair: The most encouraging thing recently was when President Bush and President Jiang met. They talked about the importance of renewing military cooperation. That has not yet been translated into concrete measures of the kind that I described, but I think with this sort of push from the leadership we can make progress on that. Question: If I can expand on the point that Matthew was making, all the stuff that I've been hearing about in the context of this counter-terrorism campaign is of a bilateral nature, and as you know there exists already in place the Shanghai Group is a multilateral organization that is addressing exactly those issues that you're talking about. Is there any initiative for the United States to sort of move into some sort of cooperative arrangement with that organization? Adm. Blair: My impression right now, Bob, is that the real organizations for the long-term campaign are pretty fluid. That different ideas are being tried at the United Nations on a bilateral basis, on a multilateral basis, and they really haven't jelled. But I think that the Shanghai Cooperation Agreement was a precursor of the sort of regional approach which could be valuable. I think the whole nature of that has been changed by the conflict in Afghanistan and the new relationships, Uzbekistan, United States, China, and so I think the deck will be reshuffled as far as sort of the long-term organizations in which we continue. But I would think the activities like the ones undertaken earlier by the Shanghai Group are really the sort of thing we need. And underneath them we need the hard, tactical stuff of exchanging names and doing joint activities along the borders and handing off leads so that each side can make actual arrests and disruptions. Those sorts of things we're working out really as we go. Let me just emphasize one other thing while I have a pause between questions, because it was a question that I have been asked since I've been in the region. It's about this conflict that's taking place in Afghanistan. I just want to emphasize the same thing that the President and others have said about it being a military action against a very narrow group which are international terrorists and governments which knowingly support them. It's not a campaign against a religion, it's not a campaign against a people. Everything that I have seen, and although I'm not tactically involved in the campaign I see a lot of how it's done has been extraordinarily careful and precise in terms of what has been attacked and what has not been attacked. Our adversaries know this and they will pull forces and weapons into churches, into mosques for example, and we will not attack them there. We investigate what went wrong if one of our weapons does go in the wrong place, and we've become more precise as the days have gone by. We have been in contact with Muslim groups in our own country and in many other countries to make sure that we are not taking action which could actually be or be perceived to be some kind of attack on a religion, be it the terminology we use or the actions that we take. I just want to contrast that with our adversaries here who willingly, with full knowledge, took an airplane full of fuel and rammed it into two office buildings and then the Pentagon where they killed about 5,000 Americans and several hundred citizens of other countries who were doing nothing but going about their business on a day-to-day basis. So I do want to emphasize the extraordinary care and precision with which we're conducting what is always going to be a violent campaign with what we're not doing as well as what we are doing and our desire to have a follow-on phase which is directed at humanitarian support and building the type of Afghanistan that will give that people some relief after, what's it been, 15 years of just being fought over by one group or another. Question: I'm sorry if you covered this already, but I'm just wondering what kind of assistance you have in mind for the Philippines government in what they call their fight against terrorism. Adm. Blair: The final form of that assistance will be determined during President Arroyo's visit to Washington which is coming up next week. I think she's in New York over the weekend. But when I was there we discussed the types of assistance that the Philippines could use and then I was down in the southern area talking with the commanders. I don't want to get into the specifics since they will be announced, but it will be a balanced package with components like training, which we have already started in the past with some of the training of a company which is now deployed down in Zamboanga. Then it will be intensification of other aspects of training as the Philippines request and as we can supply it. So the specifics are going to be announced, but the objective is to make their aggressive and continuing campaign in the Philippines even more effective than it has been to date and I was really happy to see that seven more of the hostages were freed here yesterday. Although the two Americans, of course, are still being held hostages along with another Filipino hostage, or Filipina hostage -- I think it's a woman that they're still holding. We want to assist the armed forces of the Philippines to rescue that last group, and then eradicate that Abu Sayyaf group. Question: Admiral, do you think it's possible to see an end to the Abu Sayyaf group? Would that be a good test case of the resolve to deal with this sort of terrorist organization, the classic sort of thing? Adm. Blair: Those who are students of Philippine history remind all of us how long there's been trouble in that part of the Philippines. However, talking with people like the Mayor of Zamboanga and others, I think the key to it is, as we discussed earlier, the bringing of economic assistance and social development on top of the security campaign. And I see no reason if that is not done in an aggressive and careful manner why the people of the southern Philippines wouldn't concentrate on improving their lives and see that that's a better way to live than to be subjected to this group that rampages around taking hostages and causing a lot of trouble. A lot of the economic development progress there are really important and basic. It's roads for access to markets. It's assistance with their water transportation so that products can get to market. I think that if the government of the Philippines with support from the United States can bring that sort of development to the southern Philippines it can be an area which will concentrate on that and not be an are in which groups like the ASG can roam around and cause a lot of trouble. Moderator: Thank you, Admiral. Unfortunately I believe you have a very busy schedule today, and we'd like to thank you for taking some time out this morning of your busy schedule, and thank everyone for coming this morning. Adm. Blair: Thank you. (end transcript) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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