“The difficulty is I can imagine something else. And it’s that uncertainty which gives rise to the fact that we are seeing an upswing in defence spending with an eye to imagining greater capability.” At the same conference, a top US commander said deterring China from launching military action was the US’ main regional priority, but warned Beijing cannot be its sole focus as North Korea ramped up its missile program and Russia maintained a strong naval fleet in the Pacific. Deputy head of US Indo-Pacific Command Stephen Sklenka said his belief was Chinese President Xi Jinping understood the benefits...