US Defence Secretary in Thailand next week
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US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta leaves the US on Sunday on his fourth trip in just over a year to the Asia-Pacific region, an area now defined as central to US national interests and military strategy, Stripes Central online reported Thursday.
Panetta will be joined next week in Perth, Australia, by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey and Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of U.S. Pacific Command, for annual US-Australia ministerial meetings.
During the stop, Little said, Panetta will thank Australia for its major contributions to the war in Afghanistan, and review what Little said were positive outcomes of recent rotations of US Marines and airmen to the country.
From Australia, Panetta will head to Thailand to meet with leaders here. The final stop is in Cambodia, for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations defence ministerial summit. Panetta has called the association a model for conflict resolution in a region fraught with competing territorial claims.
