Hegseth: US committed to defense of Pacific territories against China
Defense Secretary reiterates US committed to defense of its Pacific territories.
HAGATNA, Guam - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reaffirmed the US is committed to defending the Pacific territories of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands and said any attack on them would be an attack on the mainland.
Hegseth touched down in Guam from Hawaii on Thursday as part of a regional tour, his first as defense secretary, in which he is seeking to shore up long-standing alliances to counter China.
Amid US-China competition in the Pacific, Guam and the neighboring Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have become increasingly significant in supporting American naval and air operations, especially in the event of a conflict over Taiwan or in the South China Sea.
Both territories are within range of Chinese and North Korean ballistic missiles and the U.S. tested a defense system in Guam in December.
Any attack on Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands would be met with an “appropriate response,” Hegseth said during his brief visit.
“We’re defending our homeland,” Hegseth said. “Guam and CNMI are vital parts of America and I want to be very clear - to everyone in this room, to the cameras - any attack against these islands is an attack against the U.S.”
“We’re going to continue to stay committed to our presence here,” Hegseth said. “It’s important to emphasize: we are not seeking war with Communist China. But it is our job to ensure that we are ready.”
Hegseth’s week-long tour comes against a backdrop of Chinese assertiveness. Its coast guard vessels have repeatedly encroached into the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea and around the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
His visit will be closely watched in the Pacific for signs of the Trump administration’s commitment to traditional allies following a rift between Washington and Europe that has tested the decades-old transatlantic alliance.
The trip also threatens to be overshadowed by the fallout from revelations that Hegseth and other national security officials discussed attack plans against Yemen’s Houthis on the messaging app Signal with a journalist present.
Located closer to Beijing than Hawaii, Guam is known as the “tip of the spear,” with 10,000 military personnel, an air base for F-35 fighters and B-2 bombers and home port for Virginia-class nuclear submarines.
The security pledge from Hegseth comes as debate on Guam’s future as a U.S. territory has intensified, with competing calls by some residents for full statehood and U.N.-mandated decolonization, led by the Indigenous Chamorro people.
Defending Guam and CNMI, Hegseth said, aligns with President Donald Trump’s “goal to achieve peace through strength by putting America first.”
He delivered remarks at Andersen Air Force Base and took an aerial tour of Guam before meeting with the governors of Guam and Northern Mariana Islands, Lou Leon Guerrero and Arnold Palacios, respectively.
Guerrero appealed to Hegseth about the “great impact” the U.S. military buildup on Guam has had on the island’s residents.
The Defense Department controls about a quarter of Guam’s land and is preparing to spend billions to upgrade the island’s military infrastructure as another 5,000 American marines relocate from Japan’s Okinawa islands.
“We welcome you and we welcome the position and the posture that President Trump has,” Guerrero told Hegseth, during opening statements before their closed door meeting.
“We are the center of gravity here. We are the second island chain of defense,” she said. “We want to be a partner in the readiness effort but national security cannot happen without human health security.”
Guerrero sought funding for a new hospital, estimated to cost US$600 million.
“Our island needs a regional hospital capable of handling mass casualties, whether from conflict or natural disasters,” she told Hegseth.
Afterwards Guerrero told reporters she didn’t have time to discuss the housing crisis caused by the US military buildup.
Earlier this month Guerrero warned in her ‘state of the island’ address of U.S. neglect of Guam’s 160,000 residents, where one-in-five are estimated to live below the poverty line.
“Let us be clear about this: Guam cannot be the linchpin of American security in the Asia-Pacific if nearly 14,000 of our residents are without shelter, because housing aid to Guam is cut, or if 36,000 of our people lose access to Medicaid and Medicare coverage keeping them healthy, alive and out of poverty,” Guerrero said.
At the end of his Guam visit, Hegseth announced he’d also reached an “understanding” with President Wesley Simina of the Federated States of Micronesia for planning and construction of US$400 million in military infrastructure in Yap state.
Simina’s office would not confirm to BenarNews he had met with Hegseth in Guam, saying only he was “off island.”
As an unincorporated U.S. territory, Guam residents are American citizens but they cannot vote for the U.S. president and their lone delegate to the Congress has no voting power.
Stefan Armbruster in Brisbane contributed to this story.
BenarNews is an online news outlet affiliated with Radio Free Asia.
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