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Q: And President — Russian President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have a meeting — meeting in next month.
And regarding what concern do we have about the military cooperation between China and Russia, as well as movement in military cooperation between North Korea, China, and Russia?
GEN. RYDER: Well, again, look, our focus in the region is on working with allies and partners to ensure regional security and stability. And that will continue to remain our focus. Each of the nations that you highlighted are sovereign nations. And they’re going to make decisions about who they cooperate with and who they don’t. Where it becomes a problem is when there — we start to see malign activity in terms of providing Russia, for example, with capabilities that they’re then in turn using to attack Ukraine. So again, we’ll continue to monitor that closely.
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Q: Thank you, General. At the Japanese (inaudible) summit scheduled for next week. I think the security issues, such as a mobilization of U.S.-Japan asset to – expected to be a main topic? And I know you’re not going to get ahead of the outcome, but as DOD, what results do you expect from the summit?
And a trilateral summit with – between U.S., Japan, and Philippines was – is scheduled. And considering the current situation of South China Sea, what kind of cooperation do you expect from those three countries?
GEN. RYDER: Sure. So as you highlight, I don’t want to get ahead of this summit, other than to say, you know, we certainly look forward to the opportunity to talk with our Japanese allies and further bolster our cooperation and our relationship as one of our most pivotal allies in the region.
When it comes to the – the United States and the Philippines and, you know, working trilaterally on the South China Sea, again, as I highlighted earlier, our main focus is on working together to ensure that the Indo-Pacific region remains free, it remains open, and that there’s security and stability throughout the region. That is what our focus is. And so we’ll continue to coordinate with one another and look at areas where we can cooperate to ensure that that’s the case.
Thank you very much, everybody. Appreciate it.
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Source: U.S. Department of Defense
Speaker: Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon Press Secretary
Format: Press Briefing
China Policy Research 