Statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on President Joe BidenReadout of Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III's Call(s) With Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav[...]

President Biden is an extraordinary guardian of America's national security. I am deeply grateful for his leadership and statesmanship. He has a secure place in American history as one of our great foreign-policy presidents.

President Biden renewed, deepened, and broadened the unmatched global network of alliances and partnerships that makes America more secure; he rallied the world to defend Ukraine after the Kremlin's indefensible, all-out invasion in 2022; he positioned America to succeed in our strategic competition with the People's Republic of China; he dramatically strengthened U.S. posture in the Indo-Pacific; he bolstered, united, and expanded NATO; he shored up Israel's security after Hamas's vile October 7th terrorist assault and worked tirelessly to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza; he ended America's longest war; he helped the United States and the world recover from the COVID pandemic that killed more than a million Americans; he launched the historic trilateral AUKUS partnership to make the Indo-Pacific region more secure; and at a time when autocrats brag of being the wave of the future, he showed the world the resilience and the resolve that only a democracy can muster. President Biden has been a stalwart defender of free government, a fearless foe of tyranny, and a historic champion of an open world of rules, rights, and responsibilities.

As Commander in Chief, President Biden has shown his profound and personal commitment to the Department of Defense and the American military. Under his leadership, the most recent National Defense Authorization Act supports an historic $841 billion in funding for the Department of Defense-and helps ensure that the U.S. military will remain the strongest fighting force on Earth.

President Biden has always understood that America's greatest strategic advantage is our people, and he has sought to make America even stronger and more secure by drawing on the full talents of all of our citizenry. He has made history by breaking barrier after barrier, including appointing Kathleen Hicks as the first female Deputy Secretary of Defense, Christine Wormuth as the first female Secretary of the Army, Admiral Lisa Franchetti as the first female Chief of Naval Operations and the first woman on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and myself as the first Black Secretary of Defense. President Biden cares deeply about our outstanding all-volunteer force and has insisted on making life easier for them and their families, including securing significant pay raises for our troops. President Biden always ends his speeches by saying, "God bless our troops"-and we know that he means every word, every time.

President Biden has repeatedly declared, "We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example." Today, he has done just that.

The entire Department of Defense stands united today in saluting President Biden's service to the country that we defend, the Constitution that we revere, and the republic that we love.