The United States emphasized it will "sharpen our military edge" in Asia and the Pacific, undismayed by the palpable anti-U.S. and pro-Communist bent of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.

Carter said the U.S. will do this to remain a dominant power in a region bearing the brunt of Chinese military aggression in the name of alleged "historical rights," which an international court last July 12 rules was illegal.

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In a speech aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in San Diego, Carter also revealed the next phase of President Barack Obama's pivot to Asia, or more accurately the Pivot to East Asia regional strategy. Among the key military aims of this strategy are strengthening bilateral security alliances and forging a broad-based military presence.

Carter said he next phase of the pivot will involve a rebalancing of American security commitments after years of heavy focus on the Middle East. Towards this goal, the U.S. Navy will make its attack submarines more lethal and spend more to build undersea drones that can operate in shallower waters where submarines cannot.

"The United States will continue to sharpen our military edge so we remain the most powerful military in the region and the security partner of choice," he said.

"We're going to have a few surprises as well," describing them as "leap-ahead investments."

He admitted China is "sometimes behaving aggressively," a reference to China's building and militarization of islands in the disputed South China Sea the U.S. condoned by not confronting China more forcefully.

"Beijing sometimes appears to want to pick and choose which principles it wants to benefit from and which it prefers to try to undercut," he said.

"For example, the universal right to freedom of navigation that allows China's ships and aircraft to transit safely and peacefully is the same right that Beijing criticizes other countries for exercising in the region. But principles are not like that. They apply to everyone, and every nation, equally."

Last April, Carter said he was putting "the best people and platforms forward to the Asia-Pacific" by increasing the number of U.S. military personnel in the region, and by stationing advanced weapons system.

He said these sophisticated weapons include F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter jets; P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft; continuous deployments of B-2 Spirit and B-52 strategic bombers and the newest surface warfare ships like the amphibious assault ship, USS America (LHA-6) that will serve as flagship for U.S. Marines' expeditionary strike groups.

Among the Asia problems is a sudden and steep deterioration in relations with the Philippines that can be traced to the obvious anti-American bias of president Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte has long been criticized for either being a communist sympathizer or a member of the Beijing-oriented New People's Army fighting to overthrow the governments.

His first official visit as president, this to communist Vietnam, and his visit this month to China, are reinforcing the perception among a growing number of Filipinos that Duterte plans to transform the Philippines into a communist state.

His friendliness towards Russia, which was the communist Soviet Union's most powerful state before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, is also troubling democratic forces in the Philippines.