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Moderator Loretta Harding, a Coast Guard communications manager, outlined in statistics the breadth of Tiongson’s region of responsibility. The area includes 74 million square miles of ocean, more than half the world’s population and 77 countries, including U.S. adversaries such as China, Russia and North Korea. The sector has seven of the 10 largest militaries in the world, three of the five largest global economies, eight of the United States’ top 10 trading partners and millions of miles of highly contested territorial seas.
“There are a lot of threats and challenges throughout the area of responsibility,” Tiongson said, citing in particular those “contested areas” involving military and economic competition among global and regional powers. “And (those contested areas are) not going away — in fact, they’re just increasing,” he said. “And the type of activities in those areas are getting more and more — I think the word to use is dangerous.”
The Indo-Pacific is of specific concern, with some 40 countries and economies — including the United States and China — nine of the globe’s 10 busiest seaports, and 60% of global maritime trade. Among other flashpoints, U.S. officials contend China poses a threat to free navigation in the area and rejects its claims of sovereignty in the South China Sea.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s expertise in maritime governance, Tiongson said, is in large demand throughout this large, diverse, and often-tense area. This mission involves search and rescue operations, humanitarian assistance, environmental protection and marine law enforcement of fisheries. The USCG also supports the U.S. Combatant Commands in defensive security operations under the Department of Defense.
Countering these challenges, Tiongson said, requires having a greater regional presence and stronger engagement. The Coast Guard last year permanently repositioned the Harriet Lane, a 270-foot cutter with a 100-person crew, to support Hawaii-based operations and boost Coast Guard presence in the Indo-Pacific. The USCG has also sent more Coast Guard attachés and liaison officers to the region, Tiongson said. The service, he added, has stepped up regional environmental response and illegal fishing enforcement out of Hawaii.
USCG is also establishing more bilateral and multilateral partnerships with counterpart coast guards in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and other countries, he said.
He acknowledged the Biden Administration and Congress have provided resources to address these and other USCG responsibilities, citing the funding of two fast-response cutters bound for Guam.
But key priorities remain unfunded, Tiongson said, including requests for another cutter similar to the Harriet Lane to deploy to the Indo-Pacific, two additional fast-response cutters and more maintenance funding.
“We can’t do more with less,” Tiongson said.
The USCG also can play a role in confronting great power competition from China and Russia in the Artic and Antarctica.
“The presence of a big ‘USCG’ on the side of the hull says a lot,” he said.
Tiongson mentioned a few bright spots in regional maritime governance. These include command-level cooperation with the Russians on “shared interests” along the countries’ maritime border region and Coast Guard-facilitated multilateral environmental response to the sinking last year of the MT Princess Empress tanker off the coast of the Philippines.
And Tiongson said USCG efforts in force alignment and in recruitment and retention may be producing results this year, finally denting personnel shortfalls plaguing the service and most other branches of the military.
“People are at the top of the list,” he said.
