Asian crisis hits military exercises

Asian crisis hits military exercises

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Asian countries have scaled back or
postponed planned military exercises with the United States due
to the region's financial crisis, a senior U.S. military official
said yesterday.

"It has to do with the budgets that the countries have to deal
with. They've just said we have to find ways to save money and so
we are not able to support these exercises," said Lieutenant
General Eugene Santarelli.

Santarelli, who is the vice commander of the U.S. Pacific Air
Forces, said already one air exercise, with the Malaysian Air
Force, had been shelved because of the economic troubles.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Asian Aerospace show here, he
said military exercises with other Asian countries such as
Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia have also been affected. But
he said this has not undermined U.S. military readiness in Asia.