WASHINGTON — Lawmakers questioned senior military officials on Wednesday at a House Armed Services Committee hearing about growing cooperation among China, Russia and North Korea and whether U.S. forces are prepared to respond.
“If you would imagine an Oreo … China is the cookie part, Russia is the other cookie part, and DPRK (North Korea) is in the middle, so now you’ve got this salient that’s been created of cooperation amongst these authoritarian colluders. That’s changed the region significantly,” Gen. Xavier Brunson, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, told lawmakers.
The metaphor points to increased cohesion among the three countries, with China and Russia providing the bulk of fiscal support. The three countries and Iran have been informally labeled the “Axis of Autocracy” by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
“Under Xi Jinping, China is pursuing a historic military build up,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the committee. “It now fields the world’s leading hypersonic missile arsenal. The PLA (People’s Liberation Army) is on track to exceed 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.”
According to the Department of Defense’s latest annual report on China, the country already possesses missiles with the capability of reaching well over the Indo-Pacific and into the continental United States.
Brunson said that troops in the Korean peninsula maintain readiness to deter any threat that may come about. He added that the U.S. presence has also aided in strengthening key alliances in the region.
“Our presence in the region is a driving force that has evolved our alliances over decades from dependencies to true partnerships,” Brunson said.
Some of those allies are falling in step with the actions of the United States by propping up their own defense spending. Two key U.S. allies, South Korea and Japan, have made strides to increase their defense spending due to the ever-looming threat of North Korea.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the committee, raised concerns about how the conflict in Iran played a part in diverting military posture away from the Indo-Pacific and the impact on U.S. allies.
“We stumbled into this war, have no idea how to get out of it, didn’t have any idea how to get out of it when it got started, we have even less of an idea today,” Smith said.
President Donald Trump has made a plethora of statements that contradict each other on the state of the conflict in Iran which has led to confusion among the American public and members of Congress as well.
“The chaotic plans that the president has been laying out in the last week … they’ve agreed to everything, they’ve agreed to nothing, we’re not talking, I will not extend the ceasefire, I will extend the ceasefire, I’m extending it forever,” Smith said in reference to President Trump’s rhetoric.
“The message that sends to the world is that we are not a reliable partner, we don’t know what we’re doing.”
Smith also noted that the conflict in Iran is bleeding over into the Indo-Pacific due to its effect on oil trade in the region.
The most recent spillover from the conflict in Iran came on April 21, when U.S. forces boarded the M/T Tifani, a tanker that was previously sanctioned by the United States in 2025, for transporting Iranian crude oil through the Bay of Bengal, off India’s eastern coast.
China is Iran’s largest trade partner and effectively its oil lifeline, accounting for roughly 90 percent of its crude oil exports. President Trump seemed to point the finger at China when Iranian oil was discovered on the tanker.
“We caught a ship yesterday that had some things on it, which wasn’t very nice. A gift from China perhaps,” Trump told CNBC in an interview on Tuesday.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, noted that the wars of the future will likely be fought in the Indo-Pacific, calling it “the defining strategic theater in the 21st century.”
Rogers questioned both Brunson and Paparo on how U.S. allies have supported their mission in the Indo-Pacific. Paparo said that they are “indispensable” and have been committed to joint military exercises in the region.
“We’re expanding the jointness and the range of the exercises,” Paparo said. “Bringing in more partners into mini-lateral and multi-lateral exercises … It’s really inspiring.”
Brunson echoed the same sentiments as his naval counterpart, but added that joint preparedness and modernization within allied countries allows U.S. forces to focus their efforts elsewhere.
“What we’re looking at is maybe taking a look westward, while also providing critical, but more limited, support to the North Korea mission,” Brunson said. “And I think we’re able to do that as these forces continue to modernize.”
While the United States and its allies continue to place emphasis on the deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region, Brunson told lawmakers that he would give them a more in-depth brief in a closed session about the tactics, techniques and procedures that the “Axis of Autocracy” have implemented.
“I look forward to letting you know some of the things that we’ve discovered recently that give us great alarm, in terms of the sharing of TTP across that salient that I spoke about earlier,” Brunson said.
“Poor analogy with the Oreo, but that ‘cookie’ that exists out there is absolutely dangerous to us right now and it’s continuing to develop in quick time.”