Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke Thursday about the progress achieved by the Defense Department during his four-year tenure as the Pentagon’s top official while also praising DOD leadership.
The secretary made his remarks while addressing the media following a change of command ceremony at U.S. Southern Command in Doral, Florida.
Austin first commented on the progress made in Europe and the Middle East since the 2022 start of the war in Ukraine and the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“We strengthened NATO. We’ve pulled NATO together. We’ve kept 50 countries focused on providing security assistance to Ukraine,” Austin said, referencing the alliance of more than 50 nations comprising the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
Regarding the situation in the Middle East, Austin said that providing adequate humanitarian relief to Gaza remains a high priority, and that he had spoken earlier that day about that priority topic with Yoav Gallant, during his last days as Israel’s defense minister.
“Today, when I talked to [Gallant] for the final time in his position, I emphasized again how important [the humanitarian aid issue] is and thanked him for what he did to help us move things along,” Austin said, adding that more progress on the issue needs to be made.
In terms of the overall situation in both Europe and the Middle East, Austin said he’s glad those conflicts have stayed relatively contained.
“I think we’ve done a magnificent job there in terms of managing things and not allowing things to blossom into a full-blown regional war,” he said.
Austin also commented on progress made in other regions.
“Despite supporting and managing security assistance to Ukraine, and also [supporting] Israel’s efforts to defend its sovereign territory, we’ve been able to maintain a focus on the Indo-Pacific as well,” he said.
“We have a great relationship with the Philippines, and we continue to work together in ways that we should be working together …. Our relationship with India is much expanded from what it was,” he said, also adding that Japan has greatly increased its investment in defense over the past four years.
When pressed on whether he has any concerns about how the new commander in chief will use the military once the new administration takes over in 2025, Austin said that he wouldn’t speculate on such a topic, but that he has full faith in the military leadership.
“I will tell you that we have an incredibly professional group of leaders in the military, and they are absolutely focused on doing the right things to maintain the competitive edge in the battlespace,” Austin said.
“These senior leaders will stay focused on the task at hand: defending this country, taking care of our troops [and] succeeding through teamwork,” he added.
“This is what they’re made of. This is what they do. I have 100% confidence in them going forward.”
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