The Association of the United States Army will host the annual Land Forces Pacific (LANPAC) Symposium in Hawaii next week.
Philippine Army Chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido will be joining other foreign military leaders from 32 countries, including at least 16 Chiefs of Armies, in LANPAC 2025, scheduled from 13 to 15 May at the Sheraton Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala said Galido will participate in the symposium as a panelist during the session on Positional Advantage.
"He will deliver a presentation focused on the theme: Prevailing through Landpower," Dema-ala told the Daily Tribune in a Viber message.
Army Reserve Commander MGen. Ramon Zagala will also serve as a panelist in discussions on reserve force issues, according to Col. Dema-ala.
The international symposium will focus on the role of land forces in the Indo-Pacific region and their contributions to the Joint Force during both peace and conflict.
In a digital press briefing on Wednesday, US Army Pacific Commanding General Ronald Clark said the upcoming LANPAC forum comes on the heels of US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's recent visit to the Indo-Pacific, where he repeatedly emphasized the United States' unwavering commitments to its allies and partners in the region.
"He also added that we view allies and partners as force multipliers, and the whole goal of this is that we want stronger and more resilient partnerships and a network of partnerships, not less going forward. Less does not deter," Clark noted.
Clark said LANPAC is also part of the efforts of the Theater Army in the Pacific and the United States Army Pacific to operationalize deterrence as well as to address critical security challenges.
"We campaign forward throughout the region for the purpose of preventing war. This is all about our ability to prevent war by building necessary capacity and interoperability with our partners and allies in the region," he added.
Clark reaffirmed the US Army’s commitment to security cooperation with allies and partners, emphasizing collaboration with academia and industry to address complex regional challenges.
"We also do this by deterring while transforming. We're essentially undergoing a transformation in contact in the United States Army, where we're right now in the process of making our formations more mobile, more lethal, and more survivable, and more resilient by increasing the lethality of our soldiers and giving them capabilities that they can use right now in time, and space to be able to deter our adversaries," he added.
Clark said LANPAC is "a visible symbol of strength of the strategic land power network."
"We'll host allies and partners again from across the region as we do that, and it'll demonstrate the strength of those partnerships," he added.
Assessing Indo-Pacific
Clark cited the strategic land power network within the Indo-Pacific region.
"It's about people, and it's never been stronger. So the human-to-human interaction, the procedural interaction, and our ability to be able to have technical interaction with our partners and allies across the region, essentially interoperability, is the key for us," he explained.
Clark stressed that LANPAC will allow US forces to build stronger connections and better understand their allies and partners across the region.
"So our ability to be able to work together through our interpersonal contact, by proximity through campaigning as we conduct a series of operations, activities, and investments across the theater, it gives us an opportunity to get to know our teammates across the region," he said.