Taiwan is becoming a key challenge for the United States of America. The Pentagon is changing its military strategy and preparing for a possible conflict with China, and Europe will have to defend itself against Russia. This is reported by The Washington Post, reports UNN.
Details
The publication reports that in mid-March, the Pentagon distributed a document marked "secret" signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth entitled "Interim Strategic Guidelines for National Defense".
It outlines in general terms and sometimes in partisan details the implementation of President Donald Trump's vision of preparing for and winning a potential war against Beijing and protecting the United States from threats in the "near abroad," including Greenland and the Panama Canal.
The document states that, given personnel and resource constraints, the Ministry of Defense will "take risks in other theaters of war." It envisages a policy of pressure on allies in Europe, the Middle East and East Asia to spend more on defense and take the lead in deterring threats from Russia, North Korea and Iran.
According to The Washington Post, Hegseth's memorandum calls China's likely invasion of Taiwan an exceptional scenario with priority over other threats.
The publication recalled that in the 2022 National Defense Strategy of the administration of former US President Joe Biden, the main focus was on alliances in countering Russian aggression. In Hegseth's concept, NATO should take on a "much larger" burden-sharing to protect European countries from Russia, as the US will not provide troops due to its concentration on other regions of the world.
In addition, the document stipulates that a significant increase in Europe's participation in the distribution of the defense burden "also ensures that NATO can reliably deter or defeat Russian aggression, even if deterrence fails and the United States is already engaged or forced to maintain forces to deter a primary conflict in another region."
The memorandum was forwarded to the National Security Committees of Congress, where Republicans and Democrats called it confusing. As the document calls for abandoning the presence in most countries of the world, including the Middle East, at the same time, the Trump administration focused on demonstrating firepower and deterring the Houthis in Yemen, as well as putting pressure on Iran.
There is tension between "We want American power and military dominance in the world" and "We want to be everywhere, but also nowhere.
The Washington Post writes that the text of the memorandum is nine pages long. Some excerpts from it are similar to a longer 2024 Heritage Foundation report, and some are almost identical. One of the co-authors of the report is Alexander Velez-Green, who is temporarily serving as the top political official at the Pentagon.
In a report released last August, the Heritage Foundation recommends that the Pentagon identify three main priorities: deterring an invasion of Taiwan, defending the country, and increasing burden-sharing among allies and partners, as stated in the Hegseth memorandum.
A congressional aide told reporters that Capitol Hill staff are confident that the document was influenced by a conservative think tank.
The Pentagon's new guidance on Taiwan's "denial defense" calls for an increased troop presence through submarines, bombers, unmanned ships, and special army and marine units, as well as a greater emphasis on bombs that destroy fortified and underground targets.
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The plan also calls for improving the defense of US troop locations in the Indo-Pacific, prepositioning stockpiles and improving logistics.
Emphasizing support for deterring a Chinese attack on Taiwan, the document also calls for "pressing" Taipei to "significantly increase" its defense spending. Trump and his allies have criticized Taiwan for not investing enough in its own defense, calling on the self-governing democratic island to spend up to 10% of its GDP on military readiness - a proportion far exceeding the defense spending of the US and its allies.
The publication recalled that since taking office, Trump has avoided answering the question of whether the US will allow Beijing to seize the island by force.
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