Defense Secretary Mark Esper is greeted by Indo-Pacific Commander, Adm. Philip Davidson in Hawaii.

HALIFAX SECURITY FORUM: There are no plans to pull US troops from South Korea or Japan, the head of the Indo-Pacific Command told reporters here today, pushing back against reports the Pentagon was considering withdrawing 4,000 troops from South Korea if it does not pay more to keep the 28,500 US troops there.

“No one has talked to me about planning to draw down troops” from the two countries, Adm. Philip Davidson said on the sidelines of the conference. “The mil-to-mil relationship with the Koreans continues to go gangbusters. I was just in Korea last week,” he said, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley,  where “we were working on the alliance issues we work on all the time, so I’m quite confident” on the military-to-military relationship.

Tensions between the longtime allies erupted into public view last week when the US side walked away from talks after Seoul balked at paying up to $5 billion to keep American forces stationed there. The country currently pays about $900 million a year to support the US presence. Senior negotiator James DeHart ended his group’s participation in the talks Tuesday, saying “the proposals that were put forward by the Korean team were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden sharing.”

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who was also in South Korea last week, pushed back on concerns that relations between the two countries were fracturing. “We’re not threatening allies over this. This is a negotiation,” he told reporters during a trip to Vietnam.

In remarks to the conference earlier today, Davidson said the Indo-Pacific region was the Pentagon’s number one priority, echoing Gen. Milley’s recent remark that the Pacific “is the No. 1 regional priority for the United States military.” 

When stacking priorities at the Pentagon however, it helps to follow the money. The US forces in Europe are bolstered by the $6.5 billion Congress granted this year to fund the European Deterrence Initiative. The 2020 budget request for the fund is slightly lower, at $5.9 billion.

The fund has grown massively since it was established in 2015 with a $1 billion bottom line, and has funded exercises with US allies, rebuilt Cold War-era military infrastructure, and helped allies modernize their own capabilities.

There’s no such fund to pay for similar initiatives in the Pacific region, despite the existence of the Indo-Pacific Security Initiative which Congress signed off on two years ago. At the moment, however, the account is empty. “II’s never been appropriated, there’s always been a zero there,” Davidson said.

I asked Davidson about the mismatch, and if he expected the fund to be filled up.

He said there’s no indication that IPSI would see money any time soon, but talks with the Pentagon and Congress are ongoing. “It’s certainly a vehicle we could use to help fund Indo-Pacific defense assets, but the department to this point has felt that they haven’t needed it, but it’s a tool that might be at their disposal.” 

Asked what he might do if Congress put some money in the account, he said “it’s no secret that the kind of capability sets we’re looking for in the region: integrated air and missile defense, F-35 fighters, long-range precision fires, networks that make all that work together.” 

During the eventful trip by US defense officials to South Korea last week, the US and South Korea also announced that they would postpone a joint military air exercise the North Korean regime has slammed as provocative. President Trump has already curtailed or cancelled other military exercises with South Korea, leading to consternation in Seoul that the US was taking military readiness in the region less seriously in its quest to forge a nuclear deal with the North.

Known as the Combined Flying Training Event, the drill was planned to simulate air combat scenarios with aircraft from the United States and South Korea.

Davidson said he supports putting the exercise on hold in order to “be on the right side to make sure we’ve done everything we can” to help the diplomatic process along. “We’ll mitigate any tactical impact” to lapses in training and readiness in the coming months, he added.