00:00The Department of National Defense gave a statement that the alliance between the Philippines and the United States remains strong.
00:08At the same time, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the country.
00:13According to DND Assistant Secretary Arsenio Andolong,
00:17the Philippines is the first country visited by Hegseth in the Asia-Pacific region
00:22that he confirmed that the United States values its alliance with the country.
00:28Andolong explained that one of the main agenda of Hegseth is to find out what is happening to our security issues,
00:37particularly in the West Philippine Sea,
00:40where Hegseth expressed support to become the tools that will be used in the upcoming exercises
00:48to strengthen the interoperability of the country.
00:52Andolong added that with the establishment of a new Trump administration,
00:56they also found an indication that the United States continues to send support to the country
01:03and that the assistance of the USA will not be affected by NATO.
01:08More than 80% of the shipments pass through the South China Sea and the West Philippine Sea.
01:16Meanwhile, Andolong also confirmed that aside from the Typhoon Missile,
01:21the Anti-Ship Missile Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System or NIMESIS will also be used in the upcoming exercises.
01:34It will be deployed in coastal areas.
01:36Although it is only used temporarily in exercises,
01:41we are also interested in buying equipment like this to strengthen maritime security in the Philippines.
01:50We can say that we have the same interests here.
01:56That is what we call peace and security in the Indo-Pacific.
02:01And the freedom of navigation is what is important to our two countries.
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