Secretary Of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Holds an On the Record Press Gaggle Aboard the USS George Washington (CVN 73) in Japan

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD AUSTIN III: Once again, good afternoon everybody, and thanks for being here.

This is my fourth trip to Japan as Secretary of Defense, and my 13th trip to the Indo Pacific. It's great to be back.

Our two countries have gotten a lot done together over the past four years. Heard me describe some of those achievements this weekend in California, but there's much more to see here.

I'm especially proud of how we've improved our force posture, invested in our capabilities, and taken steps to upgrade our command and control and work together with our allies and partners.

So I'm here to take stock of that progress and thank Japan's leaders for their partnership and to engage with our troops here.

And so with that, I'll take a few questions.

STAFF: We'll go with Ellie from CBS

Q: Yes, Mr. Secretary on Syria, how surprised were you that the offensive toppled Hassan's government and on the U.S. strikes in Syria, what did they hit and why did the US conduct those strikes?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: I think the entire international community was surprised to see that the opposition forces moved as quickly as they did. Everybody expected to see a much more stiff resistance from Assad's forces. So the speed that was set unfolded was surprising, I think, to most everybody in the international community. In terms of what has transpired, of course, as it unfolds, there's a potential that elements in in the in the area, such as ISIS, could try to take advantage of this opportunity and regain capability. We've been tracking ISIS as part of our defeat ISIS campaign for some time, as you know, and we've seen cells trying to strengthen and develop additional capability out in the Madaya desert and those strikes were focused on those cells. And as you know, we reported out that we conducted some attack some 75 targets with a number of different platforms. And we're still evaluating the results, but I think that we're going to find it pretty, pretty successful. But that's focused on ISIS, to keep the pressure on ISIS and to deny them the ability to easily resurge.

STAFF: Lets go to Brandi of DefenseScoop.

Q: Thank you so much, Mr. Secretary, speaking to the sailors, you mentioned that the PRC and that the U.S. sends carriers places to make a statement. Can you talk a little bit about the modernization you saw today and how important USS Washington is to endurance and Indo Pacific?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: USS Washington is extremely important. And as you know, this area will be based here, based out of here, the sailors that are on this ship, many of them have been with the ship as it went through some very deep maintenance, and got the ship ready to go. Sailed it over, participated in an exercise in or out here. And so they're very proud of what they've done. Now, what the capability that they bring is that, as you know, F-35s that are part of this air wing, and that is a very, very capable platform. And so again, I think any U.S. naval ship deploy anywhere is a statement of a U.S. commitment. And certainly when you send a carrier battle group, it is a strong statement of US commitment. You've seen that in the Middle East, as we have deployed carriers in and out of theater. In one case, just recently, we had two carriers deployed.

Q: And really quick, the U.S. has made massive investments to support Taiwan under your leadership, putting it simply, why and what's your team's latest assessment regarding China's plans to be prepared to invade in 2027

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Well, we, you know, we've said all along that, in accordance with the Taiwan Relations Act, and our commitment is that we will continue to help Taiwan tame the ability, or the capability that it needs to be able to defend itself, and that's been our work throughout. We don't want to see any kind of unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. We've been very clear about that as well. There's a lot of speculation about when Mr. Xi will decide to do one thing or another. I would just say, from my vantage point, at this point in time, I don't think you know, an attack is either imminent or unavoidable. So again, our goal is to make sure that we continue to work with likeminded partners and allies to ensure that we maintain a free and open Indo Pacific, and we've been pretty successful at that thus far.

STAFF: Ok, lets go with Songho from Yonhap

Q: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, in Korea is a period of political uncertainty and turmoil because of the martial law declaration, of course, is reversed. But do you think that would have any impact on the South Korea, U.S. alliance and security cooperation between the two allies, about North Korean threatens and other issues.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Well, I began by saying that our relationship with the ROK is his ironclad and, you know, I expect that it will continue to be that way, as a matter of fact, throughout this whole process, you know, my staff at the assistant secretary level, my senior military officer in in theater, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, have all continued to engage with their counterparts to ensure that, you know, we maintain open lines of Communication and stay focused on the task at hand. You know, you're confident that ROK will continue to work through its political domestic challenges, but I won't comment on that one way or the other. I would just say that you know our relationship is ironclad and we remain focused on the defense of the peninsula.

Q: Do you see any possibility that North Korea may undertake any provocative activities in times of political crisis in South Korea?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: We certainly have not seen that yet, and we remain focused on any change to the status quo, but we've not seen that.

STAFF: Final question, DOD News.

Q: With Force Design 2030 the Marine Corps is becoming lighter, more expeditionary from the sea, and more lethal and survivable. And posturing itself in the first island chain from here to the Philippines to Darwin. Do you think the Marine Corps is going in the right direction with this force design, sir?

I do, I think, you know, Marine Corps has been focused on making sure that they can be relevant in great power competition. Of course, the Indo Pacific is, is our main effort. We've outlined PRC as our pacing challenge and so the Marine Corps has been front and center in that overall effort, and they will remain front and center, along with their allies, their partners in the United States Navy and Air Force and Marine Corps, Air Force and Army and Space Force.

STAFF: Thank you.

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