'US presence in Asia Pacific resulted in rise of India, China'

The US has said its presence in the Asia Pacific region paved the way for a long term peace and stability in the region and thus helped countries like India and China to "rise and prosper."

"Our presence helped first, Japan and South Korea, and then South-east Asia to rise and prosper, and now, yes, China, and in a very different way, India to rise and prosper," said the Deputy Defence Secretary Ashton Carter.

He said the US intends to continue to play that positive, pivotal, stabilising role in the region while working with all the stakeholders.

"Our rebalance involves us and the Department of Defence. But it's broader than that. It's a broader effort which begins with support for our principles and values of governance, of free and open access to commerce, of a just international order that upholds the rule of law, open access to all domains and peaceful resolution of disputes," he said.

The US, he said, is preparing for any opportunity or challenge it faces in developing new operational concepts to continue to succeed.

"We're not just talking the talk of rebalance. We're walking the walk. And we have the military capacity to do that for two reasons.

The first, as our forces and capabilities are released from Southeast Asia, it frees up that capacity for the Asia-Pacific region. But second we are prioritising our financial and intellectual resources to invest in that region," he said.

60 per cent of the Air Force's permanent overseas forces are already stationed in the Asia-Pacific region, he said, adding that additional capacity would be moved to the region as the US withdraws from Afghanistan.

"A few examples, MQ-9s, U-2s, Global Hawks, all of those will begin to show up, or show up again in the Asia-Pacific region. It will be re-tasking accordingly the PED assets from DCGS and so forth that are currently so engaged in CENTCOM operations to the Asia- Pacific region," Carter said.