Well, good morning. It is great to be in Singapore.
And Bastian, thank you very much for your warm welcome. The Shangri-La Dialogue is an important forum for bringing together defense leaders from across the Indo-Pacific and the world. And I want to thank IISS for hosting us this morning. As was mentioned, I'm certainly proud to be back into the Indo-Pacific for the second time as the Secretary of Defense. And I'm going to keep coming back, and back, and back again. You're stuck with me.
But it's not just me. America is proud to be back in the Indo-Pacific — and we're here to stay. The United States is an Indo-Pacific nation. We have been since the earliest days of our Republic. We will continue to be an Indo-Pacific nation — with Indo-Pacific interests — for generations to come.
And under President Trump's leadership, the United States is committed to achieving peace through strength. That starts with deterring aggression around the world and here in the Indo-Pacific, here in our priority theater, here with you — our allies and our partners. The United States stands ready to work with any country that is willing to step up and preserve the global and regional peace that we all hold dear.
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