The United States is gearing up to "sharpen our military edge" in Asia and the Pacific in order to remain a dominant power in a region feeling the effects of China's rising military might, says the US defense secretary Ash Carter. The commitment came in his speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in port in San Diego.

Mr. Carter, the Pentagon chief explained what he called the next phase of a US pivot to Asia a rebalancing of American security commitments after years of heavy focus on the Middle East.

The Pentagon head aimed at reassuring allies unsettled by China's behavior in the South China Sea came three days after he made remarks at a nuclear missile base in North Dakota about rebuilding the nuclear force.

Mr. Carter said that, "The United States will continue to sharpen our military edge so we remain the most powerful military in the region and the security partner of choice."

"We're going to have a few surprises as well," describing them only as "leap-ahead investments," he said.

With a broad complaint that China is "sometimes behaving aggressively," Carter alluded to Beijing's building of artificial islands in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

The Pentagon will make its attack submarines more lethal and spend more to build undersea drones that can operate in shallower waters where submarines cannot, he added.

"Beijing sometimes appears to want to pick and choose which principles it wants to benefit from and which it prefers to try to undercut," Carter said. "For example, the universal right to freedom of navigation that allows China's ships and aircraft to transit safely and peacefully is the same right that Beijing criticizes other countries for exercising in the region. But principles are not like that. They apply to everyone, and every nation, equally."

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