SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Well, Mr. President, it's great to see you again.
PRESIDENT FERDINAND MARCOS, JR.: Thank you.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: And welcome to the Pentagon.
PRESIDENT FERDINAND MARCOS, JR.: Thank you.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: As well as Secretary Teodoro. It's, likewise, a pleasure to see you again and so soon as well. Your personal leadership is vital to advancing a secure, prosperous and sovereign Asia Pacific. And I want to thank you, Mr. President, and thank you both for your shared vision that includes leading with courage and determination.
Our storied alliance has never been stronger or more essential than it is today and together we remain committed to the Mutual Defense Treaty. And this pact extends to armed attacks on our armed forces, aircraft or public vessels, including our Coast Guard anywhere in the Pacific, including the South China Sea. As I emphasized at Shangri-La, the Asia Pacific is our priority theater and the United States is committed to achieving peace through strength and willing to work with all nations who share this desire in the region.
We do not seek confrontation, but we are and will be ready and resolute. We're proud to support our mutual economic vitality, including your efforts to modernize your armed forces and collective defense. And since our last meeting in Manila, during my first trip to the Asia Pacific in March, our teams have made remarkable strides. Under President Trump and your leadership, Mr. President, we've made rapid progress enhancing real deterrence and upholding a free and open Asia Pacific through deepening our interoperability and expanding joint exercises, including the largest and most sophisticated exercise Balikatan ever conducted, as well as the Philippines historic participation in Talisman Saber in Australia.
We're also deploying new cutting-edge missiles and unnamed — excuse me, unmanned systems and revitalizing our defense industrial bases. Together, we must forge a strong shield of real deterrence for peace, ensuring the long-term security and prosperity for our nations. So I look forward to our discussion today and your meeting with President Trump tomorrow. Welcome, Mr. President.
PRESIDENT FERDINAND MARCOS, JR.: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you once again. It's a very great pleasure to be with you and to meet with you once again after your visit to us in Manila. It was — the visit, turns out your visit to Manila became a very strong message and very symbolic message of the continuing partnership between the Philippines and the United States, not only on defense and security — not only in the defense and security sector, but in all other fields.
As it has been described before, you cannot limit Philippine American relationship to one dimension. Because of the length of time that we have been partners, the evolution of that partnership has really encompassed all kinds of other areas, starting from the people to people, to the G2G [ph] to all — I cannot think actually of an area of cooperation where the United States and the Philippines are not involved.
Since your — it was a symbol, an important symbol. Your visit was an important symbol and sent a very clear message about our continuing partnership and our continuing understanding of the mutual defense treaty, the mutual defense treaty. The United States is our only treaty partner and the Mutual Defense Treaty continues to be the cornerstone of that relationship, especially when it comes to defense and security cooperation.
But that, we must continue to be in discussion, we must continue to evolve that relationship as the circumstances, the context in which we operate has evolved. And I think that we have done a great deal in that regard. Since your visit, we have come to many agreements. We, again, have reaffirmed our mutual defense treaty and the importance that both countries, the United States and the Philippines regard that treaty and the joint exercises that we have had, they have been extremely useful and I'm very, very happy to note that the feedback that we get from our own military has been very good.
And when I see the officers who were involved and I speak to the men and women who were involved, they say it was extremely useful. And essentially, we've achieved our purpose because they say they have learned a lot about how to operate together, not only with American forces, but also with, as you've mentioned, forces around the Asia Pacific and down to Australia and even to Canada and all of the other countries that that have been involved.
So it has been a good development and I thank yourself and the United States government and President Trump for the continuing support that we feel and that we need in the face of the threats that we, our country, is facing. So I'm very happy and the continuing support that you have given us in terms of the modernization of our armed forces.
And again, that forms a very, very important part of that relationship. And again, it is the proper response considering the challenges, let me put it that way. The challenges that we face in the Philippines specifically are vis a vis the changing political geo political forces and the political developments around our part of the world.
But again, this, I believe that our alliance, the United States and the Philippines, have formed a great part in terms of preserving the peace, in terms of preserving the stability of the South China Sea. But I would even go as far as to say in the entire Indo-Pacific region and we are always very, very happy to continue to strengthen that relationship.
And we look forward to the coming discussions between our two governments and the results that I am certain that we will find at the end of those discussions. So thank you once again, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Absolutely. Well, thank you, Mr. President. Appreciate it. Thank you.