SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD J. AUSTIN III: Mr. President, welcome back to the Pentagon. It was great to see you at the White House with Prime Minister Kishida and President Biden yesterday. I was so sorry to hear of yesterday's tragic helicopter crash. We're all thinking of your fallen service members, their families and their teammates, and we stand ready to help in any way we can because as I've often said, we're more than allies, we're family.
Together, our two countries have achieved a great deal since your visit almost a year ago and our alliance has never been stronger. We've strengthened interoperability between our forces to tackle common challenges, we've expanded our operational coordination on land, at sea and in the air, and together, we've stood up to coercive behavior in the South China Sea. This level of cooperation is critical to our collective security and to peace and prosperity across the region.
President Biden again made clear yesterday our commitment to the defense of the Philippines is ironclad. An armed attack on Philippine Armed Forces' public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific, including the South China Sea, would invoke U.S. defense commitments under our mutual defense treaty.
Both of our countries have invested significant time and resources to address our shared security challenges, and we're going to keep building our partnership. President Biden's new budget request seeks $128 million to execute 36 projects that enhance defense cooperation agreement sites, and that would more than double the amount that we've invested in EDCA infrastructure.
All this underscores the strength of our alliance, Mr. President. So I look forward to hearing your views on how we can keep working together more closely than ever, including through cooperation with likeminded partners.
President, thanks again for making the trip. It's great to see you. And I know we're going to have a great discussion.
PRESIDENT FERDINAND MARCOS JR.: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary, and thank you for hosting us once again here at the Pentagon, and thank you for your kind words for our fallen servicemen who were involved in the accident yesterday.
We -- this visit here to the Pentagon reaffirms once again the strength of the relationship between the United States and the Philippines. In the face of all of the threats and challenges that we have had to face together, the Philippines has always been able to look to the United States for support.
And we hope that this trilateral agreement, which we formalized yesterday, will be a formalization of an added multilateral support and structure that will make the safety, the peace, and the stability of the South China Sea a reality and continue to be a reality.
We have done much work since the last time we met. We have done much work between our two militaries, between also our two governments, and I hope that we can continue that trend.
I view the new agreements and the new partnerships and alliances that we have forged, including a trilateral agreement, not as a response to any particular challenge or threat but merely a continuing development and evolution of the relationship that we have been fostering over 100 years.
And I can only see that our two countries getting closer and working together and in closer coordination so as to be able to provide continuing defense of international law and international rule of the UNCLOS, especially in the differing claims that we are having to deal with in the South China Sea.
But thank you once again for this opportunity for us to consult with you and to see what more it is that we can do in the future. Thank you very much, Secretary Austin.
SEC. AUSTIN: Again, Mr. President, welcome. We're delighted to have you here, and I'll look forward to a great conversation.
PRES. MARCOS: Thank you very much.
SEC. AUSTIN: Thanks, everybody.