US-BACKED KURDS Pentagon focus shifts from terrorism to China, Russia

Chuck Schumer, Senate Democratic leader

says of US President Donald Trump WASHINGTON DC: The United States military has put countering China and Russia at the centre of a new national defence strategy unveiled on Friday.

Defence secretary Jim Mattis called China and Russia “revisionist powers” that “seek to create a world consistent with their authoritarian models”.

“We will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists that we are engaged in today, but great power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of US national security,” he said.

The Pentagon on Friday released an unclassified, 11-page version of the document, which did not provide details on how the shift towards countering China and Russia would be carried out.

At the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “It is regrettable that instead of having a normal dialogue, instead of using the basis of international law, the US is striving to prove their leadership through such confrontational strategies and concepts,” he said.

China’s US embassy criticised the strategy, saying Beijing sought “global partnership, not global dominance”.

“If some people look at the world through a cold war, zerosum game mindset, then they are destined to see only conflict and confrontation,” an embassy spokesman said.

US military outlay is far more than China and Russia. The US is spending US$587.8 billion (RM2.3 trillion) per year on its military, China US$161.7 billion and Russia US$44.6 billion. Reuters