00:00As you know, President Trump has said America will re-establish peace through strength.
00:08President Trump has also made it very clear, and we reiterate,
00:12we are going to put America first.
00:15But America first does not mean America alone.
00:20America's warriors stand shoulder to shoulder every day
00:24with their Japan Self-Defense Force counterparts.
00:28Our forces operate and train together across all domains to uphold deterrence.
00:35America and Japan stand firmly together in the face of aggressive
00:40and coercive actions by the Communist Chinese.
00:44America is committed to sustaining robust, ready, and credible deterrence
00:49in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait.
00:54Japan would be on the front lines of any contingency we might face in the Western Pacific,
00:59and we stand together in support of each other.
01:04We have a robust alliance agenda that will strengthen our deterrence posture,
01:09keep the enemy guessing, creating dilemmas for them,
01:13and ensure that we achieve peace through strength, as I mentioned.
01:16This means ensuring that we have the right posture in Japan
01:20and the right capabilities forward deployed here,
01:23whether permanent or temporary.
01:26It also means expanding access to key terrain here in the first island chain,
01:31such as Japan's southwest islands.
01:34And certainly it means exercising together at those critical locations.
01:39And with that, I want to announce that the Defense Department has started Phase 1
01:43of upgrading U.S. Forces Japan to a Joint Force Headquarters.
01:49This upgrade will improve our ability to coordinate operations
01:52with Japan's own Joint Operations Command, or JJOC.
01:57And we certainly welcome JJOC's establishment this past week.
02:01It's more urgency. It's more cooperation in real time.
02:06It also increases our readiness to respond to contingency or crisis,
02:11support U.S. operations, and help Japan and U.S. Forces defend this territory.
02:18Soon we will add additional personnel in Tokyo and at U.S. Forces Japan headquarters
02:24to conduct activities that will strengthen our bilateral bonds
02:28and deepen our operational cooperation.
02:32This also means reorganizing U.S. Forces Japan into a warfighting headquarters,
02:39increasing its staff, and giving its commander the authorities needed
02:43to accomplish new missions.
02:46And in our meeting, America and Japan, we seek peace.
02:53But as my first platoon motto says, those who long for peace must prepare for war.
02:57We must be prepared.
03:00For those of you on the phone, please wait until your name is called.
03:30For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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