US Pentagon official: US is 'digging in' on Asia, seeks 'partners, not protectorates'

The United States is not disengaging from Asia and is instead “digging in” to maintain a favorable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, but expects its partners to shoulder more responsibility for their own defense, a senior Pentagon official said on Monday.

Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of Defense for Policy, sought to counter concerns about Washington’s reliability in the region while calling for greater burden-sharing and “partnership, not dependency.”

“America is definitely not disengaging from Asia,” Colby said in a speech in Manila. “We are not leaving; in fact, we are digging in, to ensure a favourable balance of power where it matters most.”

The Philippines, the United States’ oldest treaty ally in Asia, is the first stop on a Southeast Asian trip that will also take Colby to Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia.

Colby said maintaining a favorable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific required a “posture of deterrence by denial along the First Island Chain” and pointed to what he described as a growing U.S. military commitment in the region. The First Island Chain refers to an area stretching from Japan down to Taiwan, the Philippines, and Borneo.

The strategy could not rely on American forces alone, he argued, stressing that allies should invest more in their own security.

“When we ask our allies and partners to step up, to invest more in their own defense, and to take responsibility for their own sovereign security, we are not signaling abandonment,” Colby said. “We are looking for partners, not protectorates.”

“When our partners are strong, deterrence is strong,” he added.