US military chiefs skip UK-led security forum for first time

Alastair Gale, Bloomberg News on Aug 29, 2025

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The U.S. declined for the first time to send any uniformed military or government personnel to speak at a key security conference organized by the U.K. and held in Japan this year, even as regional allies seek to strengthen coordination.

The Pacific Future Forum, being held Friday and Saturday on board the U.K. aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in Tokyo Bay, features the U.K. and Japanese defense ministers as speakers, and senior military officials from Japan and Western nations.

The U.S. Seventh Fleet commander, Vice Admiral Fred W. Kacher, was among those invited to speak, according to people familiar with the matter, but the organizers received no response.

The Seventh Fleet didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours. Mark Sedwill, the chairman of the Pacific Future Forum, declined to comment.

The Pentagon in July pulled out of the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, with a spokeswoman saying it “promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the President of the United States.” Later that month, the Defense Department reportedly issued a memo suspending participation in privately organized forums. The Pacific Future Forum is government-run.

Mark Montgomery, a former U.S. rear admiral, said in a panel discussion that he was “ashamed” that the U.S. hadn’t sent any speakers to the Pacific Future Forum. In May, China broke with typical practice by declining to send its top military diplomat to the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, another major security conference.

Alessio Patalano, a professor of war and strategy in East Asia at King’s College London, said on the sidelines of the Pacific Future Forum that it was “remarkable” that the U.S. had decided not to send any official participants to the event. The U.S. had missed “the opportunity to be on stage alongside NATO and East Asian allies to discuss the value of ever closer ties,” Patalano said.

The Pacific Future Forum, first held in 2018, is usually convened in Europe and known as the Atlantic Future Forum. It has been held six times previously, all with official US participation, according to the forum organizers. The location shifted to Japan this year because of the Prince of Wales’ deployment to Asia, where it has been taking part in training exercises in Australia.

In 2024, U.S. participants included military and diplomatic personnel, such as Major General Robert Sofge, who was at the time commander of US Marine forces in Europe and Africa.