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Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder provided the following statement:

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III will depart this week for a trip to Australia, the Philippines, Laos, and Fiji to participate in a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings. These engagements will drive ongoing efforts to modernize our alliances and partnerships toward our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

As part of his twelfth official visit to the region, Secretary Austin will first travel to Darwin, Australia for multilateral meetings with regional allies and engagements with U.S. Marines from the Marine Rotational Force-Darwin. From there, Secretary Austin will make his fourth visit to the Philippines, where he will advance security objectives with Philippine leaders and meet with U.S. and Philippine forces. In Laos, Secretary Austin will participate in the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting (ADMM)-Plus on November 21, reaffirm the U.S. commitment to ASEAN centrality at the ASEAN-United States Informal Meeting, and identify future areas of cooperation with regional counterparts. Secretary Austin will conclude his trip in Fiji, marking the first ever visit by a U.S. Secretary of Defense, and will meet with key Fijian leaders to deepen the bilateral defense relationship.

Secretary Austin's trip comes as the United States builds on unprecedented cooperation with like-minded countries to strengthen regional security.