Washington – President Donald Trump and Defense Minister Beit Higseth Plans Hundreds of military officials Personally Tuesday After the Pentagon suddenly asked senior leaders from all over the world to be held at a base in Virginia without publicly revealing the reason.
The assembly at the QUANTICO naval base near Washington has fueled intense speculation about the purpose and value of calling such a large number of generals and Admiral to one place, with many countries that include conflict areas in the Middle East and other places.
The meetings between major military copper and civilian leaders are not new. But the experts say that the size of the assembly, the preference that was called and the ambiguity surrounding it is especially unusual.
“The idea that the Secretary will speak to the generals and give them his vision to manage the department – and perhaps also for strategy and organization – this is completely reasonable,” said Mark Kansian, the chief adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired navy.
“What is ambiguity is the reason that it is in this short notice, and why it is personally and what it might be involved,” he said.
The uncertainty comes at a time when the country faces capabilities The government closing This week, while Higseth, who concentrated the house on the deadly and what he calls “the ethics of the warrior”, took many unusual and unjustified measures, including Discounts To the number of general officers and Fire from senior military leaders.
News about The suddenly scheduled meeting It erupted on Thursday, and Sean Bernil, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed, but he refused to release more details.
Trump does not seem to know this when the correspondents asked him during the appearance of an oval office later that day. The president said, “There will be if I wanted, but why is this big deal?”
A White House official said on Sunday that Trump will also speak in the gathering. President NBC News said Higseth will talk about our military success, talking about being in good condition, and talking about a lot of good and positive things. “
Last week, Vice Vice President JD Vance argued that the media turned her into a “big story” and that “it is not in particular unusual that the generals who offer” Higseth come to him.
The Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragon, head of the NATO Military Committee, described the meeting as unusual and told the correspondents on Saturday after a meeting of NATO in Riga, Latvia, “as much as up to 49 years of my service, I have not seen that before.”
The lack of detailed information in many in Washington to predict the concentration of the meeting. Whatever it is, Michael Ohangalon of the Brookings Foundation said he was suspected that there will be a dramatic element that may be “important like any objective”.
“The tremendous scale makes you wonder about the type of useful interaction that can happen,” said Ohangalon, Director of Foreign Policy Research. “Thus, he slapped more plays or tries to impose it instead of trying to exchange views.”
Brian Clark, an older colleague and director of the Defense and Technology Concepts Center at the Hudson Institute, said that the meeting will focus on the Trump administration’s transformation in the defense policy. He said that the US military is expected to focus less on Europe and Asia and more on the northern hemisphere, a change that breaks with decades of precedents.
Higseth defended the army’s role in Securing the borders of the United States MexicoThe spread to American cities as part of Law enforcement in TrumpAnd implementation Boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea region The administration says targeted drug dealers.
Clark said: “I think they are trying to control the tone and control the context, on these generals and Admiral to say that the strategy that we came out is completely different from what I used to – we need to be all on board.”
Clark said that the video conferences around the world are difficult because the leaders are spread across the time areas. They will be forced to attend the meeting personally to dig the point to the house.
“It is a way to prove that this is important,” Clark said.
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The Associated Press Selfie Corbette in Paris contributed to this report.