[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9048]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   PROMOTING UNITED STATES INTERESTS IN THE INDO-ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I come to the floor this morning to talk 
about an amendment I have filed to the National Defense Authorization 
Act, amendment No. 1708.
  This amendment would require the President to submit a comprehensive 
strategy within 120 days to promote U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific 
region. This language or similar language was already placed in the 
House version of the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization 
Act.
  The amendment would assure that the U.S. Government is effectively 
marshaling resources and employing a whole-of-government approach to 
implement an effective, multifaceted engagement policy in the Indo-
Asia-Pacific region.
  This region will be vital to U.S. national interests for generations 
to come, and the administration's Asia pivot or rebalance policy was 
intended to reflect that. This is something the administration has 
talked about for years, this Asia rebalance or Asia pivot. But 
currently, the administration does not seem to have such a 
comprehensive strategy or approach that seamlessly incorporates U.S. 
military, diplomatic, and commercial activities to make the rebalance 
an effective policy.
  In April of 2014, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a 
report stating that U.S. Government agencies ``have not substantially 
prioritized their resources to increase engagement in the Asia-Pacific 
region.'' In fact, if we look at U.S. foreign military assistance, I 
believe it ranks somewhere around 4 percent of spending. If we look at 
the Bureaus, this region we are addressing, hopefully through the Asia 
pivot and rebalance, receives about 1 percent or so of funding, 
depending on how we measure it. In fact, it is last among the Bureau 
funding.
  Last month, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Secretary of 
Defense Ashton Carter announced a new initiative that envisions a boost 
in U.S. military assistance over the next 5 years to enhance maritime 
security efforts with Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, 
and Thailand. This effort is a welcomed step forward but alone is not 
enough.
  These initiatives cannot take place in a vacuum. Department of 
Defense efforts need to be more effectively wedded with other efforts 
of U.S. Government agencies into a coherent and comprehensive strategy 
of assistance and engagement in the region. In light of the shared 
threats in the region, this lack of a comprehensive policy sends the 
wrong message to our allies throughout the region.
  The amendment will ensure that Congress is a genuine partner to the 
administration's effort to implement this important effort. I ask my 
colleagues to support this amendment.
  One of the challenges we have seen going forward, of course, in the 
Asia-Pacific region is--as we talk about Asia balance, as we talk about 
a pivot--our day-to-day attention seems to be more and more drawn to 
the Middle East, rightly so. But our long-term interests lie in Asia 
and these regions that we are trying to negotiate a Trans-Pacific 
Partnership Agreement with. Hopefully, the House will pass trade 
promotion authority later this week, and we can begin to work in 
earnest on ideas that represent our commitment through the Asia pivot 
or Asia rebalance.
  I am concerned that we have talked a lot of good talk and we have put 
together some fancy rhetoric and put a pretty good label on our foreign 
policy efforts as it relates to the Asia Pacific, but what we haven't 
done is actually followed through. While I commend Secretary Carter for 
his efforts and commitment, we can't just stop there. We must make sure 
we are doing everything we can to grow our opportunities in this region 
through an Asia pivot or Asia rebalance that truly does need 
reenergizing.
  One of the best ways to help a rising China truly become a great 
nation is to make sure it is abiding by the norms and standards of 
acceptable international behavior. We have talked before about the 
challenges we have--from violations of intellectual property rights and 
cyber theft. In fact, five PLA officers have been indicted. President 
Obama has put forward an Executive order listing possible sanctions on 
cyber threats. We know that if we can start avoiding these kinds of bad 
behaviors when we start engaging Asia and our neighbors and friends 
throughout the region, the region we will be dealing with through the 
Trans-Pacific Partnership--it is my hope we can truly bring this 
amendment through the National Defense Authorization Act to bring 
coherence and clarity to the rebalance strategy we have talked about 
but so far have not been the best in our execution.

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