00:00Secretary of Defense of the United States, the Honorable Lloyd J. Austin III,
00:05and Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines, the Honorable Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr.
00:14America is profoundly committed to the defense of the Philippines.
00:18Our commitment to the Mutual Defense Treaty is ironclad.
00:22And let me say again that the Mutual Defense Treaty applies to armed attacks
00:26on either of our armed forces, aircraft, or public vessels,
00:30including our Coast Guards, anywhere in the South China Sea.
00:36We have heard that in recent months China has been more aggressive in the South China Sea.
00:41Can you tell us what's happened and what the response has been, U.S. and Philippine side?
00:46Well, it's the same story over and over again.
00:50They have been more aggressive in denying us access to our exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.
00:58They have really placed a lot of these pseudo-military vessels disguised as Coast Guard vessels
01:12and maritime militia vessels in the areas in the West Philippine Sea.
01:17They have been very aggressive in their information operations against the Philippines.
01:23The behavior of the PRC has been concerning.
01:30You've heard me say that a number of times.
01:32They've used dangerous and escalatory measures to enforce their expansive South China Sea maritime claims.
01:42When it comes to what we will do, I won't speculate or make about any hypotheticals when it comes to our Mutual Defense Treaty.
01:54But we have emphasized, and you heard me just emphasize it a couple of minutes ago,
01:58that we remain committed to the treaty, we stand with the Philippines,
02:04and we condemn dangerous actions by the PRC against lawful Philippine operations in the South China Sea.
02:13Again, this is concerning behavior, and we've made this point to our Chinese counterparts a number of times in a number of courts.
02:22Again, we'll continue to work with our allies and make sure that we're doing the right things to promote a secure and open Indo-Pacific.
02:35That's really important to everyone in this region.
02:39Then again, insofar as the Philippines is concerned, and in partnership with the United States,
02:46our main theme of cooperation here, aside from being treaty allies,
02:54stands for upholding of international law and the values of freedom and democracy.
03:04The strength of our alliance, I think, will transcend changes of administration going forward.
03:13Again, I won't speculate on any changes in policy or anything that the new administration may bring on board.
03:24What I will tell you is that this is an important country, not only to me, but to people in both parties back in the United States of America.
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