The U.S. declined for the first time to send any uniformed military or government personnel to speak at a key security conference organized by the U.K. and held in Japan this year, even as regional allies seek to strengthen coordination.
The Pacific Future Forum, being held Friday and Saturday on board the U.K. aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in Tokyo Bay, features the U.K. and Japanese defense ministers as speakers, and senior military officials from Japan and Western nations.
The U.S. Seventh Fleet commander, Vice Adm. Fred W. Kacher, was among those invited to speak, according to people familiar with the matter, but the organizers received no response.
The Seventh Fleet didn＊t immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours. Lord Sedwell of the U.K., the chairman of the PFF, declined to comment.
The Pentagon in July pulled out of the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, with a spokeswoman saying it ※promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States.§ Later that month, the Defense Department reportedly issued a memo suspending participation in privately organized forums. The Pacific Future Forum is government-run.
Mark Montgomery, a former U.S. rear admiral, said in a panel discussion that he was ※ashamed§ that the U.S. hadn＊t sent any speakers to the Pacific Future Forum. In May, China declined to send a delegation to the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, another major security forum that Beijing has traditionally attended.
The Pacific Future Forum, first held in 2018, is usually convened in Europe and known as the Atlantic Future Forum. The location shifted to Japan this year because of the Prince of Wales＊ deployment to Asia, where it has been taking part in training exercises in Australia.
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