Good morning!  I am honored along with my colleagues on the stage here to be in front of you and have the opportunity to address the Sixth International Maritime Security Symposium.  Thank you to the Indonesian Navy specifically to Admiral Ali for bringing us together to discuss the incredible strategic significance, economic dynamism, and maritime security of the Indo-Pacific.  Thank you for inviting me to join you offer my perspective on challenges and opportunities in our current strategic environment.
 
The global strategic environment is shifting rapidly as you know, driven by competing national interests, technological advancements, and transnational threats.  These dynamics have profound implications for maritime security and requiring adaptive responses from all of us in this room.  Today, I will discuss how these changes impact our collective security, the role of shared values and international law, and how technology and cooperation—the theme of this symposium—can help us safeguard stability at sea.
 
The dynamic Indo-Pacific region we share is home to 50% of the world’s populations, 60% of global GDP, and 7 of the world’s 10 largest militaries.  It has the world’s busiest trade routes, with 60% of global maritime commerce passing through its waters.  And it is home to many of the most consequential challenges to our security, freedom, and well-being.  Those include some asserting territorial claims contrary to international law, backed up by their military posturing that raises the risk of miscalculation.  We also continue to see illegal activities by nonstate actors such as piracy, illegal fishing, arms smuggling, and human trafficking.  Those activities challenge maritime governance and security and require multinational responses.  Our challenges also extend to cyberspace.  Increasingly, naval operations are vulnerable to cyberattacks which could target maritime infrastructure, navigation systems, and supply chains.  And competition over increasingly scarce resources, particularly in fisheries and energy, contribute to geopolitical tensions.
 
These challenges do not recognize national boundaries, which means no single navy can address them alone.  Our response must be collective, strategic, and rooted in shared values.  The United States Navy is privileged to be a friend, partner, or ally with nearly every nation represented here today.  That is partly because in the United States Navy’s 250^th year of service, which is in 2025, we have sailed the world’s oceans and the Indo-Pacific and we have built lasting relationships based on those shared values.  In that context, the U.S. Pacific Fleet remains honored to be a reliable military partner across Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
 
We are making progress together in some key areas.  The U.S. Pacific Fleet continues to work with our allies and partners to support freedom of navigation and international law.  The series of Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activities in the Philippines are one example of that. The United States Navy conducted one as recently as 5 February, with Australia, Japan, and the Philippines, demonstrating a collective commitment to strengthen cooperation in upholding vital maritime rights while providing assurance to those Allies and Partners. The Pacific Fleet also continues our Oceania Maritime Security Initiative throughout the North and South Pacific, where host nation authorities embark on our ships as we patrol their EEZs for illegal activity. 
 
We work together to improve our Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief response capabilities through our annual Pacific Partnership mission, and through our scenarios embedded into our multilateral exercises.  Not only that, our ships frequently stop what they are doing to help countries in need of disaster assistance as mentioned earlier this morning.  We saw this with the AMERICA Amphibious Ready Group’s response to volcanic eruptions in Papua New Guinea in 2023.  The eruption occurred as we were wrapping up TALISMAN SABRE in Australia.  We canceled port visits for AMERICA, GREEN BAY, NEW ORLEANS, and their thousands of Sailors and Marines, and rushed them to respond as we frequently do the same elsewhere along with our teammates here on this stage—because it’s the right thing to do.
 
The enduring success of the Malacca Strait Patrols is another great example of what can be done when regional partners work together.  Based on our frequent presence in and around the Strait of Malacca, the U.S. Pacific Fleet along with allies and partners who patrol there, demonstrate our commitment to keeping it free, and open, and safe for all of us.  To that end, we continue to help our partners improve their maritime domain awareness capabilities through various initiatives and exercises.  Those include SEACAT, which we join ASEAN members and others for annually, and using our maritime patrol aircraft and other overhead assets to share information.
 
In addition to maritime security patrols, HADR operations, and maritime domain awareness efforts, U.S. Pacific Fleet works with you to advance multilateral exercises.  In the past year, we have expanded our engagements with Southeast Asian nations through numerous successful operations, exercises, and humanitarian initiatives.  During those, we emphasize engagement, education, and integrated training.  For example, last July we were fortunate to have six ASEAN member states join us in Hawaii for RIMPAC. In September, we participated in SUPER GARUDA SHIELD, which involved over 22 nations, four ASEAN members, and 5,500 combined forces.  We helped local Indonesian communities with projects such as road construction.  We do similar community service when we exercise in other countries—because it’s the right thing to do.  And our Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training, or CARAT, exercise series continues to grow in scope and scale.  During CARAT, participating countries conduct integrated, multi-domain operations and share skills and tactics while strengthening our common bonds.  And we are committed to strengthening those bonds—2024 was the thirtieth year of the CARAT exercise series.  Countries that hosted a CARAT exercise last year included Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, just to name a few.
 
These various efforts are significant and are demonstrative of the critical role Indo-Pacific navies play in maintaining regional stability. Moving forward, as threats evolve, we must also evolve. We must continue to deepen our cooperation both operationally and technologically.  That cooperation starts by continuing to enhance maritime domain awareness, which improves our shared knowledge base.  Investing in satellite surveillance, AI-driven analytics, and unmanned systems will improve our collective ability to monitor and respond to security threats.  Collaborative efforts such as the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness initiative can help improve real-time information sharing across borders, and improve our decision cycle.  As naval operations and port infrastructure becomes more digitized, we must also prioritize cyber resiliency by enhancing defense capabilities and intelligence-sharing.  Effective regional cybersecurity training for naval personnel will help counter cyber threats to maritime security.  Countries with advanced capabilities and large capacity must continue to support other navies through training, technology transfers, and infrastructure development.  We must continue to deepen and widen our bilateral and multilateral naval cooperation.  Many of our previously bilateral exercises have become multilateral.  GARUDA SHIELD became SUPER when all those other countries joined us here in Indonesia.  MALABAR used to be a bilateral Indian and U.S. exercise and last fall, Australia, India, Japan, and the United States joined MALABAR. India hosted it, and we pushed our combined interoperability and integration to new heights.  Also in 2024, Australia joined Japan and the United States for the first time in KEEN EDGE.  Finally, TALISMAN SABRE was previously a bilateral Australian and United States exercise and has evolved and in 2023, thirteen countries went to Australia to participate in the largest TALISMAN SABRE exercise ever. Our momentum continues this year—2025 will see the largest-ever TALISMAN SABRE, with nineteen countries invited to participate to expand operationally and technically.
 
Now we are here for Multilateral Naval Exercise KOMODO and this year’s theme of “Maritime Partnership for Peace and Stability.”  And we are excited to be here. That is what the U.S. Pacific Fleet does every day—working with our maritime partners for peace and stability.  The Pacific Fleet’s training events will continue to be broad across the joint force, linked with our allies and partners, and open to new participants.  In addition to KOMODO, we look forward to many more future opportunities for ASEAN member states, like-minded allies and partners, and U.S. forces to operate and train side-by-side. 
 
We do not do these things however just to do them.  Our activities with ASEAN members, and like-minded partners, are done to build the readiness of our military forces, our interoperability, and our ability to work together to execute our missions.  They defend good order at sea, defend our shared values, and build deterrence, and strengthen the free and open Indo-Pacific.  Our commercial and intellectual vitality—and even our own livelihoods—depend on an Indo-Pacific based on international law and freedom of the seas, the skies, space, and cyberspace.  This interconnectedness has maintained relative peace over the last eighty years and maintaining that peace requires a strong and combat ready naval forces to maintain a credible deterrence. 
 
The U.S. Pacific Fleet is one part of that deterrent force.  I am proud of what the U.S. Pacific Fleet and our joint force can generate and our ability to synchronize in all domains and do all of that with our allies and partners.  We do so with unity of purpose, and with a powerful and resolute force.  As I speak to you today, Pacific Fleet is operating throughout the entire Indo-Pacific and we will continue to provide constant, credible, and capable combat power throughout the Pacific in an effort to maintain peace and continue to build and hone our warfighting edge.  We’ll innovate and field new capabilities; we will ensure regional stability through persistent naval presence; and if directed, we’ll certainly be ready to respond and defeat any adversary required.
 
You know the other part of that strong deterrence is our allies and partners and those partnerships are so strong.  Together, we advance a shared vision for an Indo-Pacific where all countries, regardless of size or strength, are secure in their sovereignty.  And one where all countries enjoy unfettered access to the global commons in accordance with international law.  This shared belief underpins our strong network of professional militaries throughout the Indo-Pacific, and it benefits everyone here at IMSS.
 
We continue to advance our multilateral military relationships across the board, and that progress extends beyond exercises.  We have made historic strides lately in US/Japan/ROK trilateral operations such as FREEDOM EDGE.  Historic integration between Australia, Japan, and the Philippines as well as hard teamwork with Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and New Zealand are all examples of that.  NATO allies are deploying more to the Indo-Pacific, including an Italian carrier strike group and a German task force this past summer. A French carrier strike group operates in the Pacific right now.  And we’ve made historic strides in operations and maintenance with our Indian partners. 
 
We also innovate in lockstep with our numerous and growing number of allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific. When we innovate with them, and field interoperable systems that all of us employ, the possibilities are endless.  That includes our continued development of shared capabilities, defense industrial base integration, dynamic force posture initiatives, and the exponential growth of experimentation during our exercises.
 
From all this activity, you can tell why we see alliances and partnerships as our greatest global strategic advantage.  Our combined capabilities and linkages with like-minded nations dwarf those of any adversary.  We will continue to strengthen that advantage every day, and in every domain.  That is because the ability to innovate and integrate as a combined team will be decisive in prevailing over our collective maritime security challenges which are real.
 
As demonstrated by our high level of engagement with Southeast Asian nations and the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s frequent presence here, we appreciate the ASEAN region’s key role as an economic powerhouse in the Indo-Pacific.  There is so much more all of us can do together, as countries dedicated to stability and prosperity, to work towards a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific.  Towards that end, we remain committed to the modernization of regional defense forces and deepening interoperability across various capabilities.  We appreciate Southeast Asian nations’ efforts to strengthen your defense forces, safeguard your rights and interests, and uphold international law.  We welcome your sovereign development of maritime resources and infrastructure in accordance with that law.  We encourage ASEAN members to continue to uphold that law and call out unlawful maritime claims.  At this critical juncture, the U.S. Pacific Fleet stands with you to deter aggression and defend security, sovereignty, and our collective ways of life.  Our peace and prosperity are worth it.  A safe, and stable, and secure global strategic environment is worth it.  Our free and open Indo-Pacific is worth it — Then.  Now.  And always.  I appreciate your time today and the opportunity to be here with such esteemed colleagues.