Because I could not find my glasses. So I now have my glasses, and I am standing here hoping that all gets translated properly. Good afternoon. Distinguished leaders, veterans, partners, and friends. Minister Kwon, vice minister Lee, Kang, President Lim, President Yoon, Chairperson Soon, my fellow commanders present today. It is humbling to be with you all and to those joining us virtually wearing shirts they should not still own, General Cameron. I am hoping that there's a delay there. Alright. Thank you. Thank you for continuing to be part of this alliance and this conversation, no matter where you are, no matter what you're doing, no matter what and where you find yourself. When I look around this room, I see not only leaders, but custodians of history, men and women who have carried forward the story of this alliance through your years of service and sacrifice to our veterans, Korean, and American and those from UNC United Nations Command Sending States, I begin by saying, Thank you. You are the living bridge between the battlefield of yesterday and the peace which we defend today. This forum is a reminder that our alliance is not an abstraction. It is not just ink on a treaty. It is a Living Partnership reinforced through dialog, through gatherings like this and through the enduring and expanding solidarity of veterans’ diplomacy, and that's the theme of this year's event. For more than 70 years, Republic of Korea and the United States have stood together, ironclad. What began in crisis during the Korean War has become one of the most durable, adaptive and successful alliances in modern times.
Earlier this week, we gathered to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Incheon Landing, Operation Chromite and the profound honor of meeting three men now, each one in their 90s, who was young soldiers stormed Red Beach on that September morning in 1950. Against overwhelming odds, those men and their comrades turned the tide of a war that had been nearly lost. Their courage is the foundation upon which our alliance rest and their presence at the 75th anniversary reminded us that what was secured in blood must now be preserved with vigilance.
And this alliance continues to be carried forward in deeply personal ways. Our new CFC Deputy Commander General Kim Sung Min shared that his father served as a KATUSA, a veteran of the Republic of Korea Army more than 60 years ago. Think about that a young Korean man side by side with Americans helping defend this country in the decades after the war. Now, a generation later, his son stands as the deputy commander of the Combined Forces Command. This is living proof that the alliance is not just about nations. It is about people, families, and legacies joined together in common cause.
Today, that alliance has matured. It is not just military, it's economic, cultural, technological and profoundly personal. Its weather, changes of government, generational shifts and competing global priorities, and yet, like an anchor, it is held steady. And at the heart of this alliance stands the Tri-Command structure, of which I'm proud to be the commander. United Nations Command, the embodiment of international legitimacy bringing together 18 member states who remain committed to peace on this peninsula. The Combined Forces Command, a truly combined headquarters where ROK and US forces are fully integrated. No other Alliance in this world is as seamlessly bound together as this one. United States Forces Korea, the visible demonstration of combat-credible deterrence, ensuring that our words are backed by the full capacity and might of the US military. These are not separate entities together, UNC, CFC, and USFK form a Tri-Command that is greater than the sum of its parts, united by mission, by trust and most assuredly by our resolve. But even as we celebrate the strength of our alliance, we must be clear-eyed about the threats before us.
The global environment is more complex and volatile than at any point in recent memory. Traditional boundaries between war and peace between military and civilian are eroding. Threats now flow across domains across the land, the sea, the air, space, and cyberspace. And at the focal point of our challenge here on the Korean Peninsula is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Its pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles continues without pause. These are not aspirational programs. They are real and tested. Each new demonstration is designed not only to advance capability, but to remind us of KJU’s willingness to provoke and escalate. The past year alone has seen armistice violations in the form of trash balloons and GPS jamming, cyber intrusions. These actions may appear small in isolation, but when taken together, they are designed to normalize provocation to desensitize us to instability. They're hoping for us to make mistakes in response.
Additionally, what makes today's challenge more severe is the deepening relationship between Pyongyang and Moscow. The DPRK support for Russia's war in Ukraine has opened the door for Russian technological transfers in cyber and space and potentially advanced missile systems. The risks are accelerating, and they're accelerating the capabilities of the DPRK beyond what we had previously projected. At the same time, we're witnessing greater coordination amongst Russia, China, and the DPRK. An authoritarian coalition that conducts gun controls, naval maneuvers, and economic exchanges intended to erode the very rule-based order that has preserved peace for decades.
In this environment, the DPRK feels less pressure to negotiate. In fact, Pyongyang seems emboldened by its patrons, less inclined to return to dialog and less interested in denuclearization that makes our mission more complex and in turn, even more important. And this is why the Tri-Command is indispensable. Each component plays a vital role. The UNC ensures any crisis is not seen as a bilateral, but as an international peace and stability, multilateral expression of legitimacy. CFC integrates ROK and US forces so fully that our adversaries see not two militaries, but one, a bilateral example of what it means to be an ally. USFK ensures deterrence is visible, credible, and immediately ready. The unilateral expansion of the idea that we are absolutely committed in an ironclad fashion to our mutual defense treaty obligations. Our exercises prove our readiness. This year's Ulchi Freedom Shield sharpened our joint all domain capabilities, tested our assumptions, and demonstrated resilience in the face of uncertainty. And most recently, Freedom Edge brought together US, ROK, and Japanese forces for trilateral naval and air drills a tangible display, and we are expanding beyond bilateral deterrence to integrated regional security. These exercises send an unmistakable message. We are united, interoperable, and ready. Readiness is not about checking boxes. It's about a mindset no plan ever survives contact with the enemy. The measure of an alliance is not whether it has a perfect plan, but whether it can adapt when chaos arrives.
History offers sobering reminders. We saw it recently when Houthi militant began targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea in the Gulf of Aden. Seemingly overnight, one of the world's most important maritime arteries became contested space. Merchant fleets came under threat from drones and missiles launched from the Yemeni coast. The international community responded with speed and cohesion. The United States, the United Kingdom and a coalition of partners launched to safeguard freedom of navigation. Naval task forces were reoriented, air and missile defenses were tested under live fire, and multinational coordination that had never been practiced at that scale was executed in real time. What kept the shipping lanes open was not a flawless plan on the shelf, but the ability of coalitions to adapt under pressure.
We also saw it here in the Indo-Pacific when China launched unprecedented encircling drills around Taiwan in 2022. In a matter of hours, Beijing mobilized aircraft, ships, and missile systems in a coordinated display of force that caught the world's attention for regional militaries. It was a stark reminder that flash points can escalate without warning, and that deterrence and readiness must account for sudden shifts in tempo. These examples remind us truly that security is not only about capabilities, but it's about coalitions, nations willing to come together quickly in moments of crisis. And that brings me to the deeper lesson in the central focus of my remarks that true strength rests not just in weapons or plans, but in the people and partnerships that hold alliance together. And no group has embodied that truth more powerfully than the veterans who are in our company today.
Veterans carry moral authority. They have lived the sacrifices, they have borne the burdens, and their voices carry authenticity. They are the epitome of actions and not just words. When veterans gather, they speak a common language that transcends voice, whether it's a Korean War veteran, an American who fought at caisson, an Australian Peacekeeper at least two more or a terrorist officer who served under UNC their experiences connect them instantly. That connection born of hardship and sacrifice and service is a foundation of trust, and trust is the most valuable commodity, the most valuable commodity. It's really the only commodity and currency of international relations.
Veterans’ Diplomacy is not symbolic. It's strategic. Veterans have the credibility to engage with communities, policy makers, and younger generations in ways that uniform leaders or diplomats cannot. A veteran telling the story in a classroom has as much impact on the future of this alliance as a policy paper published in Washington and Seoul. Consider how organizations like KUSAF and KDVA have built bridges by inviting veterans and their families back to Korea. They showed them firsthand the progress of this nation, the skyscrapers, the shipyards, the thriving democracy, the K Pop Demon Hunters. And those veterans return home as ambassadors telling their families, their churches, their local leaders that this alliance matters, that ripple effect strengthens public support for our alliance in ways that no governing press release ever could.
Veterans’ diplomacy also extends across generations. When veterans mentor younger officers and soldiers, they pass on lessons of resilience, humility, and sacrifice. They ensure that the alliance is not only about interoperability or strategies, but about shared values. And veterans’ diplomacy creates bonds beyond government. For example, when ROK veterans and US veterans work together on scholarships for children of fallen service members, or when they join humanitarian efforts in disaster zones, they demonstrate that the alliance is not just about defense. It's about human dignity. This is why we call it expanding solidarity. Veterans’ diplomacy strengthens not only the ties between governments, but the deeper social fabric that sustains those governments policies. It ensures that even when politics shift, the Alliance endures because it's rooted in people and shared sacrifice.
In many ways, veterans’ diplomacy is the original form of multilateral cooperation. The fellowship of the Korean War, soldiers from 22 nations, fighting side by side, lay the groundwork for today's UNC. That fellowship still echoes through veterans, wherever they might be, and when they come together. They're not simply remembering the past. They are reinforcing the foundations for future cooperation. And here's the important connection, the solidarity built by veterans is the same solidarity we must now extend across nations. The trust forged by shared hardship is the model for how we build regional cooperation. Veterans remind us that no one carried the burden of the Korean War. No single nation controlled the responsibility of security in Northeast Asia or the broader Indo-Pacific, and that's why trilateral and multilateral cooperation are absolutely essential.
Recently, in Seoul, the chiefs of defense of the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the United States met to deepen operational coordination. Their meeting underscored simple but powerful truth our security is interconnected from missile defense to maritime controls. Our trilateral cooperation strengthens deterrence against common threats. Beyond the trilateral, the 18 members of the UN Command present in the Republic of Korea and based in Japan remain a ready-made coalition from the UK and Canada to Australia and the Philippines to European partners like France and Greece. Their presence reminds us that the defense of Korea is not just a regional concern, it's a global. Roles of stations in new nations expressed interest in closer ties with the United Nations Command because they recognize that what happens here in Northeast Asia shapes the stability of the entire Indo-Pacific. Meanwhile, our adversaries, they're building their own coalitions, Russia, China, and the DPRK are deepening military and economic ties. Their aim is to fracture our unity, to sow doubt, to convince us that cooperation is fragile. The answer is clear. We must expand solidarity faster than they expand collusion.
Before I leave you here today, let me pose two questions. First, how do we maintain unity when adversaries are building coalitions designed to divide us? I would say that we maintain unity through trust, that trust forged in exercises like multi Freedom Shield and Freedom Edge and joint decisions and in daily reliability. It's reinforced by the bonds of veterans’ diplomacy, by the institutional depth of our tri-command, and by the willingness of our nations to invest in shared security. Unity is not something that you can declare. Once it's built daily, when crisis comes, trust ensures that we act as one and not as individual nations. The second question would be, how do we modernize our alliance and threats of all pastors and our processes? And I believe the answer to that is that we modernize through adaptability, and sometimes it may feel as if our processes move slow and threats move fast. That's why we must remain flexible. That means empowering leaders at every level to challenge assumptions, encouraging innovation that cuts across services and nations and investing in interoperability so that new technologies do not divide us but connect us more deeply. Our duty is to remain one step ahead, finding opportunities and challenges and ensuring that our alliance never falls behind. It's also about our organizations, our mindset, policies, and relationships that will keep pace with any disruption that we might face together.
And so tonight, I leave you with a final couple of thoughts. Our alliance is not a relic of the past. It's a foundation for the future. We’re not just reacting to threats. We're shaping the environment. We're setting the terms of stability in the Indo Pacific. We're not only defending today, we are securing tomorrow for our soldiers, for our citizens, and for the generations to come. Your role veterans matters, whether you're sharing your story, whether you're a policy maker, whether your crafting strategy, an engineer building ships or a soldier training in the field, each of you contribute to the resilience of this alliance.
Together, we will adapt, innovate and evolve.
Together, we will deter aggression and preserve peace.
Together, we will ensure that freedom, not coercion, divides the future in this region.
It’s been a pleasure being with you all here today. Thank you for your patience while I found my glasses. Katchi Kapshida. We go together.
Thank you.