JOINT BASE PEAR HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii —
Defense Secretary James N. Mattis today stressed the importance of the Indian Ocean region of U.S. Pacific Command's area of responsibility and announced that the Defense Department is renaming the combatant command as U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
Mattis made the announcement at the change-of-command ceremony here where Navy Adm. Philip S. Davidson relieved Navy Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., who had commanded Pacom for the last three years.
“In recognition of the increasing connectivity between the Indian and Pacific oceans, today we rename the U.S. Pacific Command to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command,” the secretary said. “Over many decades, this command has repeatedly adapted to changing circumstance and today carries that legacy forward as America focuses west.”
‘From Bollywood to Hollywood'
The command stretches “from Bollywood to Hollywood, and from penguins to polar bears,” Mattis said, and it plays an important part in America's National Defense Strategy. “The 2018 National Defense Strategy – the first of its kind in a decade – acknowledges Pacific challenges and signals America's resolve and lasting commitment to the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
The region has benefitted greatly from the international order put in place at the end of World War II, the…
