00:00Mr. Secretary, once again a very warm, very sincere word of appreciation for the welcome given me.
00:10As we were discussing coming up the stairs, I first came to this building more than 40 years ago.
00:16I've seen some big changes in these 40 years.
00:19And I think some of those changes were reflected in the conversation we had with Mr. Singh this morning.
00:27Now, I'm here for the court meeting.
00:31I just had a good session with you and colleagues from Australia and Japan.
00:36But I'm also here with you at the Pentagon because we believe that our defense partnership is today truly one of the most consequential pillars of the relationship.
00:50It's not built merely on shared interests, but we believe really deepening convergence of capabilities, of responsibilities.
01:06And what we do in the Indo-Pacific, we believe, is absolutely crucial to its strategic strategy.
01:15There's a lot that we will and we should be talking about today.
01:21But I do particularly want to recognize that the signing of additional agreements, especially in SOSA recently, of our expanding defense trade, of our cooperation in underwater domain awareness, autonomous systems.
01:36And the momentum in the Indus X, I think all of these really speak of a deepening partnership.
01:45The world is a complicated place.
01:48I think perhaps growing in its complexity and certainly our partnership and the contribution that we can make together, I think would be of immense importance.
02:02Not just for us, I think, but for the larger region, I would even argue for the world.
02:08Once again, it's a very great pleasure to be here with you.
