Remarks by Secretary Mattis at an Enhanced Honor Cordon Welcoming Indonesian Minister of Defense Ryacudu

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES N. MATTIS:  Well, Minister Ryamizard, Mr. Ambassador, members of the delegation, general, officials, this is a -- this is a pleasure to welcome you, sir, back to the Pentagon.  It's a pleasure to meet again.

We've met now in Singapore, in the Pentagon.  We've met in Clark City, and I would just tell you that right now, I was simply glad to be among friends, especially in your case, General, a fellow warrior, a strong, and what we call in America, a very-principled leader.  And of course, we are two old soldiers, since we were both born the same year.

Our nations' friendship is even older than we are, and that's old.  It began with the United States' recognition of Indonesia's independence from the Netherlands in 1949, an anniversary your people celebrated this month.

And the U.S., as you know, had its own argument with a European king, a European power, in the past.  It reminds us that we share more than security interests, although we certainly share those.  But we share values of freedom as the second and the third -- third largest democracies in the world.  And since 1949, the United States and Indonesia have developed a meaningful strategic partnership, one built on respect.

We are now countering ISIS in Southeast Asia.  We're training together at military schools, and I must note here that your son has very good DNA.

(Laughter.)

He graduated from the U.S. Army Ranger School a year ago, and I believe that another son of yours is currently on duty overseas in Africa, in a tough location, doing what Indonesian troops have done for many years; contributing to international peace and stability, and we hope to welcome him to Ranger School after his tour is done in Africa.

We also want to encourage deeper cooperation between our industrial bases, because we see a strong Indonesian industrial base as contributing to Indonesian sovereignty and independence and prosperity, and all of those things help add stability in the Pacific when we need it.

We are conducting over 200 bilateral defense engagements together every year, if you count all of them, and we just concluded CARAT, the most significant bilateral maritime exercise between us today.

We began SEA-CAT, I believe it was either yesterday or today to strengthen the maritime domain awareness and interoperability, and in that regard, your maritime domain awareness is critical to the peace and stability, and the freedom of navigation over that critical corner of the world's oceans.  All of these are emblematic of our military-to-military cooperation, a cooperation between two democracies that we want to enhance and continue long into the future.

Mr. Minister, as you sit in Shangri-La, and I quote here, "Respecting the sovereignty of a country is absolute and essential," un-quote, and I could not agree more with that simple, blunt statement.

And just as we share an ocean named for peace, the U.S. and Indonesia share a vision for a peaceful, prosperous and free Indo-Pacific marked by respect for every state sovereignty and independence, no matter its size.  And we also want to see freedom from coercion of any kind, military, economic, or any other.

In America, we appreciate Indonesia's strong leadership and your commitment to realizing this vision, and your growing role as a fulcrum of Indo-Pacific stability and commerce.  You have proven stalwart defenders of freedom of navigation and the rule of law, and you are conducting trilateral maritime patrols with Malaysia in the Philippines to counter terrorism in the Sulu Sea area.

We have seen you conquer other problems in the past.  Your success in eradicating piracy from the Strait of Malacca is well known among seafaring nations across the world.  And also, your support in enforcing the unanimous United Nations Security Council resolutions to counter North Korea's ship-to-ship transfers is deeply appreciated, and again, contributes to international law.

Indonesia continues to be a force for unity in the region, strengthening ASEAN, and bringing partners together on your wise and relevant -- highly relevant initiative, the "Our Eyes" initiative.

The U.S. supports your leadership, crafting strong ASEAN and South China Sea codes of conduct.  We want to be clear about that, because we see a strong Indonesia, coupled with ASEAN centrality, as fundamental necessities for peace, for prosperity and for national sovereignty in the Pacific by all nations.

And Mr. Minister, as a well-known Indonesian phrase dictates, the hard work we do today will bear fruit tomorrow.  Today, we look forward to putting in the hard work together, side-by-side, so we can pass to the next generation of our peoples an even stronger U.S.-Indonesia partnership.

So, Mr. Minister, in short, we consider you a friend.  We consider you the best of friends, and we want to strengthen this relationship, never taking it for granted.  Again, you, Excellency, members of the delegation, you are welcome here.  Your ideas are welcome here, and we hope to see more of you.

So Mr. Minister, if you'd like to say a few words in front of the press before we do the hard work together --

MINISTER OF DEFENSE RYAMIZARD RYACUDU (THROUGH TRANSLATOR):  Excellencies, Secretary Mattis and all the members of delegation we, also, on this occasion, extend our condolences for the pass of Senator John McCain.  He's a very great military figures -- as well as great quality politician.

I'm also privileged and honored to be accepted by my friend, Secretary Mattis, in the military ceremony.  It's very -- I -- I feel so honored.

Our warm relation and warm collaboration between Indonesia and the U.S. has been reflected with your warm hospitality and warm welcome.

I'm also very pleased with the hospitality and warm welcome, especially with the shipping of your weapons.  As a soldier, I feel so impressed and I feel so honored.

And as -- Secretary Mattis, I want to align myself, Secretary Mattis, it’s what you mentioned we are both the same (inaudible) and we are both cut from the same cloth and we are in the same age, also.

I feel so thankful, at our age at the moment, we have the capacity as defense minister.  And both of us, we have to play a very important role to support our nations.

And the classmates from when I graduated in Class of 1973, tomorrow already pass away and only some of them, obviously, that still exist at the moment.

And some of our colleagues -- or my colleagues was first in ghe military operation, and of them have a sickness, an illness, they've already passed away as well.

I feel also so thankful that with my age, I can still lead the Defense Ministry as well as the -- Secretary Mattis and we have to do the best for our countries.

The honor and the respect that we already receive, it is really for the (inaudible), for us to strengthen the already strong defense cooperation and collaboration of these two countries.

I really feel that the close and very clear, clear, close relations with especially with Secretary Mattis- that's something that I really appreciate and I really admire.

I believe that it become the formation for us to strengthen and collaborate and bolster our elected officials.

I want also to highlight the good things of our relations, that we are have -- a very close and personal relations.  So that wherever we are, we keep sending each other letters, (indaudible.)

(Laughter.)


Because we are already close enough, there is like a romantic relation.


I want to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude for kindly informing me about your successful military operation in Afghanistan that can appeal to highest military figures from Indonesia.

The bottom line is that we have to step up the level of cooperation to tackle or to confront the development of ISIS in our region.  We have to be serious and we cannot be in the rhetorical manner, but have to be in the more concrete and more operational manner.

We have already conducted a very successful sea patrols in the Sulu waters, and that this was reflected in no more piracy in this regions.  It is like a reflection of the fruitful cooperation.

We already conducted the successful sea patrol as well as the aerial patrol.  And in the future, we'd like to step up the level of cooperation into the land forces during operation and exercise.

But we ought to conduct this land forces operation, we would like to conduct the land forces exercise and training between these three countries.

Because what we face is a very experienced foreign fighters that are emanating from Syria and Iraq.  So we have to be prepared -- (inaudible).

I believe that's the highlights of my remarks today.  And I would also like to extend, once again, our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the U.S. support to Indonesia military to strengthen our defense relationship.

SEC. MATTIS:  Thank you, Mr. Minister.  And we agree with- that we are here to strengthen this.  We are not simply admiring what we have accomplished, it’s time to move this up, so if the members of the press can excuse us, we'll get down to work here, but thank you for coming.

(CROSSTALK)

Q:  Secretary Mattis, do you think it's a good timing to be signing peace agreement to end the Korean War?  What are the dangers of signing of it prematurely?

SEC. MATTIS:  Yeah.  I -- right now, I think we leave those kinds of issues to the State Department, the diplomats who are in the lead.  And, if you have any questions about our relationship or something like that, I can discuss that.

 But I'd prefer you take that to the State Department just because they're the ones responsible for the diplomatic dialogue.  And we're -- we're in support of them.  So I'd let them speak on that.

Q:  What about Foal Eagle exercises?  Are we still planning for that exercise?  

SEC. MATTIS:  Yeah.  We -- we are not cancelling; suspending any more exercises at this time.

But thank you all very much for coming in.