Before taking off for his Australia trip, US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said that the Pentagon was looking to deploy intermediate-range conventional missiles at locations across Asia and the Pacific in the coming months, with the announcement coming amid ongoing regional tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The US has begun negotiations with the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau on the renewal of a major political, economic and military pact governing relations between the countries, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced.

“Today, I am here to confirm the United States will protect your sovereignty, your security, your right to live in freedom and peace,” Pompeo said, speaking to reporters in Pohnpei State, Micronesia on Monday.

“I’m pleased to announce the United States has begun negotiations on extending our respective compacts of free association with each country…They sustain democracy in the face of Chinese efforts to redraw the Pacific,” the secretary of state noted, referring to the treaties governing relations between Washington and the tiny Pacific island nations strewn across the Pacific.

“Your small islands are big strongholds of freedom,” Pompeo said, adding that the US wants “to help nations in the Indo-Pacific to continue their decades’ long rise.”

Source: Sputnik