China, Russia using their growing strength to violate sovereignty of smaller states: US

US Defence Secretary Mark Esper on Tuesday said China and Russia, by rapidly modernising their militaries, are using their growing strength to "ignore" international law, "violate" the sovereignty of smaller states and shift the balance of power in their favour. "Our primary competitors, China and Russia, are rapidly modernizing their armed forces and using their growing strength to ignore international law, violate the sovereignty of smaller states and shift the balance of power in their favour," said Esper. "In Cambodia, China has received generous land entitlements to construct ports, airfields and associated infrastructure that could be used for military purposes to extend Beijing's strategic reach," the Defence Secretary said. "More specifically, the GDAP will enable us to prioritize, align and synchronize our security cooperation activities across Title 10 authorities to build partner capacity, better articulate the department's needs for priority ally and partner war fighting roles through future force planning, focus our efforts to help them shape their militaries into more capable forces and measure and track our progress across a wide range of tools available to the Defense Department," Esper said.