China’s ambitions in the South China Sea were very much on the minds of Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the military members asking him questions Friday at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Carter is wrapping up an eight-day trip to the region that included stops in South Korea and Malaysia; a visit to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the South China Sea — which got the attention of China; and a question-and-answer session with more than 200 Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard members at Hickam.

Speaking with an Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter behind him, Carter said, “The single most important factor that has kept the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region for decades is the pivotal role of American military power.”

The U.S. philosophy has been one of inclusion and getting countries to work together, he said.

“Look what’s happened out here,” he added. “Japan grows and prospered from the ashes of World War II, then Taiwan, South Korea, Southeast Asia — now China and India.”

The first of a handful of questions Carter fielded came from a Kaneohe Bay Marine who asked about China’s growing military and how it’s going to affect the U.S. military budget.

“I’ve certainly said, and we have continued to demonstrate, that for our part the United States would continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law permits,” Carter said. “South China Sea to the Arctic — that’s not going to change.”

As for the budget itself, Carter said, “We do reflect in our budget all of the possible military situations that we could encounter, and there are some out here in the Pacific — which was mentioned — and we definitely keep an eye on China, and we make sure that we stay ahead of Chinese military capabilities.”

“That’s built into our budget,” he added.

One “little good piece of news” with Carter asking for Washington to “please come together over the budget, stop the gridlock” is that “just in the last week it seems there’s been a deal made with the Congress and the president regarding the budget going forward,” he said.

A budget deal raised the Pentagon’s spending cap by $33 billion for a total of about $607 billion, which is about $5 billion shy of the president’s request.

Carter was asked by another Hawaii-based service member if “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea is the responsibility of the United States or its regional partners.

The Pentagon conducted such an operation last week by sailing the destroyer USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese man-made island at Subi Reef in the contested Spratly Islands. China had warned the United States not to do so, claiming the area was its sovereign territory.

Carter said freedom of navigation is “certainly the responsibility of the United States.”

He added, “It’s certainly a practice of the United States. But the principle of freedom of navigation is what it says — which is everybody should enjoy freedom of navigation. So, yes, our regional partners, too, should exercise freedom (of navigation). That’s the whole point.”

The sailing of the Lassen near Subi Reef was followed by military-to-military talks and visits between the People’s Liberation Army and the Pentagon in a sign of continuing relations.

Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., head of U.S. Pacific Command headquartered at Camp H.M. Smith, just returned from China, where he had extensive conversations with PLA officials, and from South Korea, where he spent time with Carter.

Speaking at Peking University, Harris said that while the United States and China “certainly disagree on some topics — the most public being China’s claims in the South China Sea and our activities there — there are many areas where we have common ground.”

But international seas and airspace “belong to everyone,” and by “matching our words and our diplomacy with routine freedom of navigation operations, we’re making it clear that the United States continues to favor peaceful resolutions to ongoing disputes,” he said.  “South China Sea is not, and will not be, an exception.”