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May 4, 2022
Transcript

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III Remarks Welcoming Japanese Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo to the Pentagon

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD J. AUSTIN III: Well, Minister Kishi, it's an honor to welcome you to the Pentagon on your first trip to Washington as Defense Minister. And it's especially good to see you in person and to get to return the warm hospitality that you showed me in Tokyo.

We are here because the U.S.-Japan alliance remains the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. Our two countries are bound by deep friendship and trust, as well as by common interests and shared values.

We're meeting at a crucial moment for those shared values and interests. Russia's baseless and reckless invasion of Ukraine is an affront to the rules-based international order and it poses a challenge to free people everywhere.

Minister Kishi, I want to commend Japan for its leadership in the global response to this crisis and I want to personally thank you for joining the first meeting of the Ukraine Security Consultative Group last week. Your presence underscored Japan's commitment to helping the Ukrainian people defend their sovereignty, now and over the long haul.

Now, Russia's aggression has implications far beyond Europe because it underscores a challenge to the rules-based order that we've all worked so hard to build and defend. In the Indo-Pacific, our two countries have worked together for decades to sustain a free and open order that allows prosperity and security for all. But China's recent behavior poses a profound challenge to common norms, values and institutions that underpin that order.

So today, in the face of this challenge, we're going to discuss ways to work towards an Indo-Pacific that's even more open and free, including our joint efforts to upgrade the U.S.-Japan alliance. And so let me reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the defense of Japan and to include our extended deterrence commitments, using our full range of conventional and nuclear capabilities.

Our conversations today will help us align our defense strategies and optimize our force posture and evolve our respective roles, missions and capabilities. We'll also discuss ways to further deepen our cooperation with other like-minded partners, including the Quad, Australia, and South Korea.

And Mr. Minister, I'm enormously proud of how far our partnership has come and I'm deeply optimistic about where we'll go together in the days ahead. And I want to thank you again for visiting the Pentagon and I look forward to a great discussion this morning.

JAPANESE DEFENSE MINISTER KISHI NOBUO (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Secretary Austin, I thank you most sincerely for your hospitality to accept my visit to the Pentagon today.

In just four months since the 2+2 in January this year, the world has drastically changed, as demonstrated by Russia's aggression against Ukraine and North Korea's ICBM-class missile launch, among other things. North Korea has just launched another missile only yesterday and such action is absolutely unacceptable and North Korea has become graver and a more imminent threat.

Russia's aggression against Ukraine, in particular, is a serious challenge to the international order, in which Russia, one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, invaded another sovereign state, Ukraine. Such unilateral change to the status quo by force is a concern in the Indo-Pacific region as well. We can no longer separate the security of the Indo-Pacific from that of Europe, and I am determined to enhance Japan's commitment to the security of Europe from such a point of view.

And so what the current situation teaches us is that the deterrence is the most important to prevent contingencies from happening. Mr. Secretary, especially I'd like to work together with you to ensure that the U.S. extended deterrence, including nuclear deterrence, remains critical and resolute.

Given the current security situation we face, we have no time to lose in fundamentally reinforcing Japan's defense capabilities and strengthening the alliance capabilities to deter and respond. Secretary Austin, I wish to promptly materialize various agenda items under our leadership.

Thank you.

SEC. AUSTIN: Thank you, Minister Kishi. Thanks, everybody.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/3019916/