Story highlights Ash Carter: US to focus more on Asia-Pacific in pivot away from Middle East

China, North Korea singled out as threats to security

(CNN) The US will "sharpen our military edge" in the face of Chinese territorial expansionism and other regional threats as it embarks on the next phase of its pivot to Asia, the US defense secretary said Thursday.

The "rebalance" to the Asia-Pacific region would ensure that the US "remains the region's strongest military and security partner of choice," Pentagon chief Ash Carter told US Navy sailors in a speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in San Diego.

The declaration comes as China, the region's other superpower, continues to make neighbors nervous by unilaterally developing what most analysts agree are military installations on disputed reefs in the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping channels.

In a post on his Facebook page Carter called the region "the most consequential region for America's future" and said that a strong US military presence there was of "fundamental strategic importance to our country."

In the speech Carter said that the focus on the region, which will come with a raft of military investment, will see strike capability and support beefed up as well as "large new investments" in cyber, electronic warfare, and space capabilities.

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