Earlier this month, the Pentagon endorsed a plan to invest 7.5 billion USD to strengthen U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific region over the next five years. The plan, namely the Asia Pacific Stability Initiative, was first proposed by Senator John McCain earlier this year and has been supported by American legislators. According to Senator McCain, the initiative “could enhance US military power through targeted funding to realign our force posture in the region, improve operationally relevant infrastructure, fund additional exercises, pre-position equipment and build capacity with our allies and partners.” The proposal, if adopted, would translate into an extra spending of 1.5 billion USD for the region annually from 2018 to 2022.

This article was originally published by China-U.S. Focus on May 23, 2017. Read the full article here.