SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: All right. Well, Mr. Prime Minister, your Royal Highness, welcome to the Pentagon.
DEPUTY SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA: Thank you, sir.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: I appreciate having you here. Thank you for making the trip, and your entire team for being here. We look forward to the discussion. We know, front and center, the Kingdom of Bahrain has been a long-standing partner of the Department of Defense, host to our fifth fleet —
DEPUTY SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA: Yes, sir.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: — to so many of our warfighters and their families, thousands. You've been gracious host to for quite some time and we want to publicly yet again, thank you for that.
DEPUTY SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: And just the — we know we can always count on Bahrain. And as evidenced by recent events, but also the courage you've shown for a long time, original signer to the Abraham Accords, host of the combined maritime forces, you are committed to peace through strength, just like we are, in that region. And I think we are at a moment of reckoning and a moment of opportunity, because of a lot of the stances that you've been willing to take and our partners have been willing to take and we're thankful for that.
So we're eager to review how we can enhance self-defense capabilities, how we can work side to side and our collective ability to take advantage of these opportunities right now. So plenty to work on, plenty to talk about, but all built on a foundation of strong cooperation for quite some time. And thank you for being here on behalf of our team and look forward to a productive discussion.
DEPUTY SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, on behalf of myself and the team and the Kingdom of Bahrain, really. It's a pleasure to be here. We are no strangers to the Pentagon. We have been visiting in many different guises and many different representations. We've had soldiers. We've had diplomats. We've had many, many leaders come here and we have worked alongside the US armed forces very closely since, well, officially since 1948, but I'm sure there was much more cooperation even before that.
The first relationship we ever had with the United States was a missionary relationship that came in 1893 from Minnesota. Yeah, absolutely.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: A Lutheran, I bet, then.
DEPUTY SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA: New Church of America, wasn't it?
UNKNOWN: Reformed Church of America.
DEPUTY SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA: Or Reformed Church of America, Reformed Church of America. And they were doctors. And they healed not only the sick in Bahrain but all over the Gulf, including many of the leaders who preceded us. So this is not a new relationship. The Kingdom of Bahrain, Bahrain at the time, signed the Trucial States Agreement in 1816, so we've been part of the rules based international order since that time.
And we have done our bit to protect it over many, many different conflicts. We will continue to deepen this relationship and we are so proud of this strong cooperation and I am all ears to hear how we can best help and we will also be explaining some of our defense requirements and how we can work together to fill those needs.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Absolutely. Well, thank you very much for being here, looking forward to it.
DEPUTY SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES SALMAN BIN HAMAD AL KHALIFA: Thank you, sir. Thank you.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Thank you.