The United States has withdrawn its last aircraft carrier from the Asia-Pacific region as President Donald Trump continues to focus military resources on the war against Iran and security issues in the Western Hemisphere.
The USS George Washington is leaving the Pacific and is expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East, where the US military is carrying out operations against Iran.
The Lincoln, which was originally expected to return home in May, has had its deployment extended as the conflict with Iran continues.
The prolonged deployment has also raised concerns over the mental health of sailors and growing pressure on supplies aboard the carrier.
The withdrawal of the George Washington leaves the Pacific temporarily without a US aircraft carrier, even as China continues to increase its military activities in the region.
The US Navy could deploy another carrier to the Pacific within the next few months, meaning the situation may not last for long.
However, analysts say the development highlights the pressure the prolonged Iran operation is placing on the US military and its resources.
Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Trump administration had previously identified the Pacific as a major strategic priority after the Western Hemisphere.
Instead, he said, Washington was now moving in the opposite direction by becoming more involved in the Middle East.
“The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” Poling said, adding that the US was “doing the exact opposite” of its earlier plan to reduce its military involvement in the Middle East.
He said US allies in the Pacific were becoming increasingly concerned about what they see as the unpredictability of the Trump administration, while China was benefiting from the distraction.
China could exploit carrier withdrawal
China has long viewed the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific as a threat to its growing influence and an obstacle to its ambitions over Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as part of its territory.
Washington, however, has maintained that the Pacific is too strategically and economically important for the US to abandon.
Bryan Clark, a former US Navy submariner and defence analyst at the Hudson Institute, said China was unlikely to invade Taiwan simply because an American aircraft carrier had left the region.
However, he said the absence of the carrier could give Beijing an opportunity to demonstrate its military strength and test the US and its allies in the region.
