SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD J. AUSTIN III: Well, Mr. Prime Minister, welcome back to the Pentagon. It's great to see you again. You were, indeed, a wonderful host when I visited Singapore last summer. And it's good to be able to return the favor.
As we discussed during that trip, Singapore remains one of our most valued defense partners. And for decades you've provided steadfast friendship, counsel and cooperation. And our partnership is especially important in these turbulent times.
We deeply appreciate Singapore's strong statements and actions opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Putin has greatly underestimated the world's resolve to impose cost on Russia for its unprovoked aggression.
The suffering of the Ukrainian people should remind us all of the human toll taken by aggression.
And Putin's war of choice underscores the need to defend and to strengthen a free and open international system in the Indo-Pacific region as well as Europe.
Now, our military cooperation has long helped to ensure security in the region and Singapore's support for U.S. forces is an anchor of America's presence in the Indo-Pacific. We greatly appreciate your support for our rotational P-8 deployments and the return of the LCS to Singapore.
It's important that we have U.S. forces training side-by-side with so many of your troops and we're grateful to Singapore for being the second largest partner military training presence in the United States.
So the relationship between our militaries is stronger than ever. And with your leadership it will continue to deepen.
Over the past year we've taken several steps to deepen our partnership and that includes enhancing our future force posture and expanding high-end training opportunities and concluding a new cyber memorandum of understanding.
And today, I look forward to discussing ways to further our teamwork to pursue shared goals for international security and to strengthen already strong defense partnership. And to share perspectives on the security challenges that we face together.
So, Prime Minister Lee, welcome again. And I look forward to a productive discussion.
PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG: Thank you Mr. Secretary. I'm very pleased to be here and calling on Secretary Austin today. We last met last July when he came to Singapore and had a very good discussion.
We have excellent and longstanding bilateral defense ties and they're a key element of the strong partnership between Singapore and the United States.
We share the belief that the U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific is critical to the region's continued peace, stability and prosperity. And Singapore continues to support the U.S. military presence in Asia.
We renewed, in 2019, the memorandum of understanding regarding U.S. use of the facilities in Singapore, which was originally signed in 1990. And we are very grateful for the support by the United States of our four training detachments and exercises in CONUS, including the new fighter training department detachment in Guam to be established around 2029. And I'm very pleased that our status as a U.S. major security cooperation partner was reaffirmed in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.
In the face of tough global challenges over the years, our two countries have continued to work closely together. Throughout the COVID pandemic, our air and naval bases as well as our ports remained open to port calls, transits, maintenance and repair operations.
When the conflict in Ukraine broke out, Singapore took a strong stand on principle, because for us the principle that sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national borders should not be violated in contravention of the U.N. charter is fundamental and existential.
It is important for us to continue to work together to jointly face these challenges and future ones to come. And I hope from our conversations we will be able to deepen the existing slate of cooperation and explore new areas of neutral interest, for example, joint training with F-35s or in the field of artificial intelligence.
Thank you.
SEC. AUSTIN: Thanks everybody.
