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.