SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD AUSTIN: It's great to be back at the ADMM-Plus for my fourth time as Secretary. Being here is a priority and a sign of our strong support for ASEAN's central role in regional security. Tomorrow, we'll publish our vision of US defense engagement with ASEAN. It's focused on practical cooperation and mutual respect, and that includes training the next generation of leaders and tackling emerging challenges and deepening maritime cooperation.

I'm also pleased to announce the second ASEAN US Maritime Exercise for next year, which ASEAN member states approved earlier today and I look forward to meeting with key allies and partners. Now, I regret that the PRC chose not to meet here. The PRC's decision is a setback for the whole region. As I've said consistently, the right time to meet is any time.

Now, before I get to your questions, I have one more announcement. Later today the white House will be announcing additional security assistance for Ukraine worth up to $275 million to meet critical battlefield needs, and that will include munitions for rocket systems and artillery and anti-tank weapons. And with that, I'm glad to take your questions.

UNKNOWN: Let's go to Brittany .

Q: Thank you so much for doing this. I hope you're OK with this question. AARO Chief Dr. Kosloski testified on the Hill today about the UAP cases. I was wondering if any briefings have reached you on that and in your career if you've seen UAP threaten national security and the progress that the office has made under your leadership?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Well, you know, I — quite frankly have not seen any UAP incidents that I would categorize as threatening non-security. There are things that happen, that have happened, and probably will continue to happen that are difficult to explain. And so when we encounter things like that, we will go and investigate those things because, whether it's some really unexplained phenomena or it's just something that that is explainable, we just have to get to the, you know, get to the root cause. We've organized our effort to ensure that we can methodically identify and assess these incidents, and I want to thank Congress for continuing to support us with the resources that we need to be effective.

Q: Awesome. And then one follow up. I hope I get more chances to talk to you about your career and legacy, but in case I don't, I know you've told us before about how you've really

pushed Israel to follow humanitarian law in Gaza and how that's been important to you. But we've all seen the imagery and videos, particularly of women, coming out of there and displaying civilian harm.

There was also a new report from the State Department that came out today of 500 cases, I think, of US weapons being used against civilians. So I was wondering if you're concerned Israel's actions in that sense are going to reflect a stain on your legacy since it was under your leadership?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Yeah, you know, I don't spend a lot of time worried about my legacy, but if there were legacy issues associated with this, I would point to the fact that we moved urgently to support Israel in its efforts to defend itself. Moved heaven and earth. And we were able to do that because of all the lessons we learned in providing prompt support to Ukraine.

And we committed to them that we would be with them until, you know, from the very beginning until, you know, this thing transition. And so our ability to provide support, you know, our commitment I think is part of that legacy but also the fact that we have consistently, I have consistently emphasized that you can be effective and achieve your objectives and also protect humans or civilians in the battle space, as well.

I truly believe that and that's why we enacted an initiative in DOD that focuses on providing protection to civilians in the battle space. And we've done a lot there. As a matter of fact, our guys, our staff have really kind of created the gold standard for, you know, focusing on civilian harm in the battle space and making sure that we're following the right procedures. We're learning from mistakes in the past and that sort of stuff, so.

Q: Did you discuss China's decision not to meet with you this week with any of your counterparts today? And do you assess that this represents a broader breakdown in talks rather than just not here and not now?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Again, you have to engage them to get their explanation for their decision to not meet. It's unfortunate. It affects the region because the region really wants to see us, you know, two significant players in the region, two significant powers, talk to each other. And that reassures the entire region.

Now, I don't think that it has any sort of implications for the future. I just think that it's something that they chose to do at this point in time and only they can explain why they chose to not take advantage of a good opportunity.

Q: Admiral Paparo yesterday said that US stockpiles are concerning in air defense, given that the wars in Ukraine and Israel have lapsed some of the weapons that are needed also to the Indo-Pacific. I'm wondering if you saw those comments and if you agree with his assessment, since he said that. Do you disagree would actually be dishonest in his opinion?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: I've not seen the Admiral specific comments because I've been, as you know, engaged with a number of things throughout the day. What I will tell you is that our readiness, our ability to protect this country and our interests remains foremost in our mind. And so you know, as we have provided security assistance to both Ukraine and Israel, there's no question that, you know, that's taken some things out of the inventory.

But I remind you that every time we do a presidential drawdown, we take things that we have in our stocks, provide them to the country in need, and there's been a significant need, and then we replace those items with new items and better items. And those munitions and those weapons are built in the United States of America.

That creates jobs. It puts us in a better position militarily. And — and so — but it takes a little time and we recognize that. So we work with industry to expand capacity in our industrial base and that's happening. In many cases industry has is rising to meet the demand, meet the challenge, and we're going to continue to do that.

We're also going to continue to work with our — with you know our allies and partners around the globe to do co-production and co purchases so that you know we can — we can do more faster. But again, we've had to do some things to meet the need. But our readiness is always foremost in our mind.

UNKNOWN: Let's go to Brett.

Q: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Attacks on shipping on shipping in the Red Sea, does Iran's somewhat weaker position of late give the Department of Defense openings to do more either direct attacks against Houthi air defense and other sites or in other spheres?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Well, we have been conducting attacks on the Houthis capabilities in an effort to defend ourselves throughout. And you've seen multiple attacks in some cases throughout the weeks. We'll continue to do that to take away as much capability from the Houthis as we can. But the Houthis have been fairly persistent. I think, whereas in the — in days gone by, they would have considered themselves to be subordinate to Iran.

Increasingly, we see them looking at themselves as being, you know, a partner and not so much subordinate. And they will, you know, make their own decisions about things. They have to be held accountable for this unlawful and dangerous activity, and they will be.

Again, you'll see us increasingly place — use all the elements that are available to us in our national power to really begin to dial this down, dial it back.

Q: All right. Your 12th trip to this region. What does it mean to you.

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN:

Q: —I'm sorry. 12th trip to this region. What does it mean to you personally, your work here?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: It means a lot. You know, when we came on board, we designed a national defense strategy that — that placed the PRC as a pacing challenge. And despite all the things that we've been supporting around the globe, we've remained focused on that pacing challenge. We've strengthened our relationships with our allies and partners.

We've helped them increase their capacity to be able to protect their own interests. We've done some amazing things, like, you know, initiated the AUKUS project, which will add a generational capability and, in my view, will add — will contribute to greater stability and security throughout the region.

So I think we have done a lot of work, a lot of good work that will be lasting in nature. You know, we see things like Japan drastically increasing its investment in its own defense capabilities, investing in long range strike. I want to co-produce munitions with us. You see the ROK and Japan working together unlike they've done before.

President Biden brought those two leaders together in a trilateral summit a year plus ago. We've continued to build on that. You know, we just had recently a trilateral defense ministers meeting in Japan. And so the minister of defense from the ROK came into Tokyo to conduct this meeting.

So we're seeing things that we've not seen before and it's because of the influence and the hard work of the United States of America. Now to be frank, we have not come to this region ever on my watch just to come. We've always done something to increase our capability, our access, and that's been — it's been great work. And I attribute that great work to the wonderful men and women who are part of this organization. You know people like Eli Ratner, who is, you know well, who's done amazing things. And everyone, every leader in this region knows him.

You know, and a while back, he had Lindsey Ford working with him as well. They just continue to do amazing things to set the stage to enable senior leaders to move — continue to move further down — down the path there. So I think we put some things in place that will be lasting. And no matter what happens.

UNKNOWN: We only have a few minutes left, folks. Please just limit your follow ups. Haley .

Q: One topic, sir. I promise, Your proposed successor to run this department, Pete Hegseth, has spoken and written extensively about women in combat, how women should not be in combat and in his opinion are a detriment to US combat units. What is your response to that? And broadly, what is your message to women in the military who feel that their service is being questioned?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Well, you know, I don't know the potential nominee, so I can't comment on — and won't comment on anything that — that he said. I don't know what his experiences are, but I can tell you about my experiences with women in the military and women in combat, and they're pretty good. You know, and I was — I told the story earlier today where, you know, I was — when I was a one star, I was a deputy commander of the third Infantry Division. And you remember that third Infantry Division was the major element that conducted the attack or the assault from Kuwait all the way up to Baghdad and was very instrumental in taking the city of Baghdad.

And I was the deputy commander for maneuver. So I was at the front edge of the battle. My goal was to be in a position where I could see and feel the fight. And so that meant that I had to be right there, you know, right behind the lead elements, and I was in my headquarters. In my command post were several very courageous and very proficient women who did amazing things to support our effort and support their colleagues.

So in my three tours, three long tours to Iraq and then one tour in Afghanistan, every place I went, there were women doing incredible things and they were adding value to the overall effort, whether they were pilots, whether they were operational experts, whether they were intel experts. You know, I see things differently and I see that because of my experience. And that experience is extensive.

And so I think our women add significant value to the United States military and we should never change that. And if I had a message, to answer your question, to our women, I would say — I would tell them that, you know, we need you, we have faith in you, we are appreciative of your service, and you add value to the finest and most lethal fighting force on Earth. Other than that, I haven't thought much about it.

Q: Why is the US providing anti-personnel landmines to Ukraine now? And is it part of the PDA today?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Well, you have seen this fight evolve over time and you know that every time the fight evolves in a certain way, then we will continue to work with our partners there, the Ukrainians, and focus on providing them what they need to be successful. What we've seen most recently is because the Russians have been so unsuccessful in the way that they have been fighting they've kind of changed their tactics a bit and they don't lead with their mechanized forces anymore. They lead with dismounted forces who are able to close in and do things to kind of pave the way for mechanized forces.

So that's what the Ukrainians are seeing right now. And they have a need for things that can help slow down that effort on the part of the Russians. They're fabricating their own anti-personnel landmines right now. The landmines that we would look to provide them would be landmines that are not persistent. You know, we can control when they would self-activate, self-detonate. And that makes it, you know, far more safer eventually than the things that they are creating on their own.

We've talked to them about, you know, how they would potentially employ these weapons and make sure that they're doing things responsible recording where they're putting their mines and make sure that, you know, they take advantage of the self-detonating qualities of these — of these weapons.

So you know, we provided them anti-tank mines from the very beginning. And because of the way that the fight has evolved, this is just another — another stage here. But again, our focus is to help them is to — to meet their needs and they've asked for these. And — and so I think it's a good idea to provide them.

Q: They're in this current PDA, then?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: I won't talk about what's in the PDA. We'll get you a readout of that soon.

UNKNOWN: Last question, Joe.

Q: Thank you so much for doing this, sir. As you mentioned, at the top, the latest round of assistance to Ukraine comes as you're across the world engaging with your counterparts in the Indo-Pacific. And as we're kind of seeing the fruits of your sustained engagement in the region, I wanted to ask to what degree does the US continued support for Ukraine impact, you know, our continued progress in building partnerships in this region?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE AUSTIN: Well, I think the impact of the conflict in Ukraine has been fairly profound. What we learned early on is that Ukraine matters and not just to Ukraine and not just to Europe. It matters to the world. You know, we shouldn't have any situation where someone can wake up one day in and attack its neighbor and change the

borders and annex its neighbors property. That just is not the world that any of us want to live in.

And so what we saw early on is that countries around the globe thought it was wrong and it was — it's necessary to do things to curtail this kind of activity. And so as you know, I stood up the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. This is 50 countries coming together from around the world to help provide security assistance to Ukraine.

And so what the world has seen, you heard me say this a number of times before, is that the largest military in Europe invaded its neighbor who had a much smaller inventory, much less capability and a thousand days later, they've yet to be successful. This war has gone on for a thousand days and Putin has failed in every case to achieve any sort of strategic objective.

And so he could end this war today and he should end it today, but he probably won't. He'll probably continue to double down on these horrible decisions that he's made. But I think the world has learned that that it is possible for a smaller, less capable country to defend its sovereign territory if its people are committed and if it has some of the resources that it needs to do so. Some of the aggressors in the world have learned that this is not as easy as one would think. And there's a cost to be paid for this and so, you know, I can guarantee you that autocrats around the world are looking at this and taking note, taking inventory.

Thanks a lot everybody. I appreciate you being here. We've got a couple more days here and tomorrow, I guess we'll be in the plenary session of the ASEAN ministers — defense ministers meeting. It should be a good day. And then, we got one more leg in the trip, which I know everybody's looking forward to. Thanks a lot.