Yesterday, Austin and Lee met at the Pentagon for the 54th Security Consultative Meeting. The guys assessed the current state of the alliance and measures to make it more interoperable and deterrent against North Korea.
Austin said that the meeting followed North Korea’s “illegal and destabilising launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile last night and more missile launches today.” “After consulting with Minister Lee, we’ve agreed to prolong Vigilant Storm, our long-scheduled, coordinated training exercise, in order to strengthen our preparedness interoperability even further. We will continue to explore measures to safeguard the United States and our partners in the area.
The Security Consultative Meeting brings together U.S. and South Korean military officials to discuss problems and possibilities, as well as to establish strategies for strengthening cooperation and friendship. The United States and South Korea signed the Mutual Defense Treaty in 1953. The Korean War, which began in 1950 when North Korean soldiers crossed the 38th parallel, devastated South Korea.
South Korea’s economy is now the tenth biggest in the world, and its military has fought with the United States in Vietnam and Afghanistan. This relationship has been an anchor of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and across the Indo-Pacific for for seven decades, according to Austin. “Today, South Korea is an incredibly competent friend, a source of security in the area, and a defender of the rules-based international system that ensures our safety.”
North Korea was an apparent topic of conversation throughout the meeting, and Austin reaffirmed that the United States’ commitment to South Korea’s defence is “ironclad.”
He said that deterrence encompasses all of the United States’ nuclear, conventional, and missile defence capabilities. He cited the deployment of fifth-generation fighters and the visit of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan to the peninsula earlier this year as instances of this extended deterrence.
“We are resuming to large-scale drills on the peninsula to reinforce our combined preparedness and our capacity to fight tonight, if required,” he said. We are determined to expanding on these measures to boost integrated deterrence and ensuring that our alliance continues to promote security and stability on the Korean Peninsula and across the Indo-Pacific.
Minister Lee emphasised the “strength of the ROK South Korea-U.S. military alliance and the consistency of the joint defence stance” in his speech.
The United States and South Korea want that North Korea abandon its dangerous course.
Lee said that the two military chiefs also discussed trilateral discussions with Japan.
Austin said, “Therefore, we shall meet the problems of the future in the same manner as we have for over seventy years: as proud allies standing shoulder to shoulder. I am quite pleased of what we’ve done together, and I am extremely appreciative of the Republic of Korea’s participation.”