SFAB leaders said in a phone interview with reporters on Tuesday that the Security Forces Assistance Brigade does not consider the competition for military partnerships in Asia to be a zero sum game. The fifth SFAB at the Lewis McCord Joint Base in Washington State is now dedicated to the US Indo Pacific Command Area, where the unit has begun collaborating with Thai and Indonesian forces. SFAB advisors are training foreign military forces as part of the Pentagon's strategy to please regional partners. But in Asia, they also hope to share some of their partners with Chinese military trainers.

It is evident that in every country we are going to, we are competing with China, "Colonel Curtis Taylor, the fifth commander of SFAB, said during a call at a meeting of the United States Army Association. "Many of our partners and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) are working together to establish civil military relations," Taylor said. We acknowledge that this is a natural part of conducting business in the region, "he said. Taylor's SFAB deployed 60 soldiers to Thailand in August after its launch in May, hoping to demonstrate to Asian countries that they are" effective choice partners in a dangerous world. Taylor added, "This does not mean that we require everyone who works with us to make choices, not other neighbors. We recognize that our partners will not change their neighbors, so they must work with many different partners

Taylor stated that the abilities of sergeants are one of the skills that the US Army Special Forces can impart to foreign military forces.