In fact, today, transnational organizations and non-state actors have both the will and the means to threaten the interests of all nations in the Asia-Pacific region. They can do this by:

• attacking our information systems

• employing Weapons of Mass Destruction — nuclear, chemical, and biological

• and through the use of terrorism at home and abroad. The attack on USS Cole last month is not only an act of terror against the United States — it is a wake-up call for all of us

Therefore, the key question that confronts us today as Chiefs of Defense, is how to best organize ourselves for these emerging defense challenges in the Asia-Pacific region?

One approach that I would commend to you today for consideration involves a set of recent initiatives undertaken by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the U.S. Pacific Command designed to improve both multilateral cooperation and the readiness of our military forces for future combined operations.

The U.S. Congress recently provided funding for the Asia-Pacific Regional Initiative — or "APRI" — which provides PACOM [U.S. Pacific Command] with the resources necessary to promote improved multilateral cooperation in the areas of peacekeeping, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief. Is this the right approach?

Consider the comments recently made by Mr. Jusuf Wanandi, Chairman of Indonesia’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, at a recent ASEAN forum. When asked how ASEAN would cope with the transnational challenges associated with globalization, he said, "The globalization process is creating new pressures. Because we are small and medium-sized, the only way for us to cope is to be together."

That same philosophy is found in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, which has, since 1989, built regional economic cooperation. Can we build the same level of regional cooperation in security matters? I would suggest that Mr. Wanandi’s approach — "to work together" — is very much the same approach being advocated by Admiral Blair, and both will enable us to enhance regional cooperation in defense and security issues.

Let me give you an example of how multinational cooperation can work. Today, the waters of Southeast Asia, the South China Sea, and the Strait of Malacca are among the most dangerous in the world. In fact, 65 per cent of reported worldwide attacks by pirates on commercial shipping occur in Southeast Asia. Almost 40 per cent of these attacks are caused by Indonesian-based pirates who sortie from remote logistics bases located in the littorals of Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Philippines, and Bangladesh.

Currently, our individual success rates against piracy are poor. It is clear that taking a unilateral, or even a bilateral approach to overcome this growing transnational threat to our shipping is just not the right answer. A multilateral response to piracy provides the only real hope for success.

In that regard, I would like to commend Japan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia for leading initial multilateral efforts in this area. With experience, training, and cooperation, this initiative may prove to be effective in mitigating or removing the threat of piracy from the region. More importantly, I believe that similar multi-national cooperative efforts can contribute to other transnational threats as well. This is a change of means rather than ends. And, from my perspective, it is a necessary one.

Recently, in response to a changing strategic environment, the U.S. has undertaken a number of multilateral policy initiatives, designed to complement our existing binational alliance strategy. These include:

• coordinating U.S., South Korean, and Japanese policies toward North Korea

• supporting a stronger ASEAN Regional Forum as an institution capable of preventative diplomacy

• funding APRI to promote multilateral cooperation in peacekeeping, search and rescue, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief

• and, a U.S. Government initiative to seek a six-party meeting of Northeast Asian countries to discuss transnational security issues