Austin concludes trip with Subic visit

SUBIC BAY Freeport — US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III has concluded his trip to the Indo-Pacific Region with a visit to this premier Freeport on Wednesday.

Secretary Austin visited a Philippine Navy facility and toured several defense industrial sites to underscore the area’s historic opportunities for defense industrial cooperation by the United States, the Philippines, and other regional allies and partners.

This is his 11th trip to the Indo-Pacific region, as the US Department of Defense continues to bolster relationships with allies like Japan and the Philippines.  

“This is a really transformative time for our relationship, our alliance here,” he said.

Austin said that the US has announced a number of key initiatives, which include the $500-million financing that the US has committed.

“We’re excited about that, and that’s going to help them modernize their military a bit further. [And] today we saw some of our industrial base companies out here working together to create additional capability, and that’s also very, very exciting,” he added.

During a US-Philippines 2+2 ministerial dialogue on Tuesday, Austin and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with their counterparts in Manila to discuss opportunities to strengthen regional peace, stability and prosperity.

As part of those discussions, the US committed to $500 million in foreign military financing to help with modernization of the US-Philippines alliance and, among other things, enhance the capabilities of the Philippine military and coast guard.