Watch as Pentagon Press Secretary, Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, addresses the media on July 02, 2024, providing updates and insights on important national security matters. Stay informed with the latest information straight from the source.
Secretary Austin hosted Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustam Umarov at the Pentagon today and reaffirmed the unwavering support of the United States for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.
During the meeting, Secretary Austin highlighted that the US will soon announce a new security assistance package for Ukraine valued at approximately $2.3 billion. The package will be a combination of Presidential drawdown authority and Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, which will provide a significant number of urgently needed air defense interceptors to protect Ukrainian cities and civilians from Russia's unrelenting aerial attacks, as well as artillery and anti-tank weapons to support Ukraine's needs on the front lines.
In addition, Minister Umarov provided Secretary Austin with an update on dynamics on the ground in Ukraine, as Ukraine's forces bravely continue to fight Russian aggression. A full readout of the meeting will be available later today on the DOD website and additionally, we'll have more details to provide in the near future regarding the security assistance package.
Looking ahead to next week, Secretary Austin will participate in the upcoming NATO summit in Washington from July 9 through 11. The summit marks the 75th anniversary of NATO and the secretary will join President Biden in celebrating this milestone while advancing key policy priorities. These include ensuring the implementation of new NATO plans for credible deterrence and defense, enhancing long-term support for Ukraine and fostering its future NATO membership.
During the summit, Secretary Austin will be engaged on discussions to ramp up transatlantic defense industrial production, ensure adequate defense investments from allies and the deepening of practical cooperation between NATO and its Indo Pacific partners to include Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea.
Since its creation 75 years ago, NATO has been the greatest defensive alliance in human history. Next week's summit underscores the US's wavering commitment to NATO and the alliance's critical role in maintaining global security and stability. Finally, the US Third fleet is hosting the 29th annual rim of the Pacific exercise in and around the Hawaiian Islands,
June 27th through August 1st. RIMPAC is the world's Premier joint and combined maritime military exercise.
This year, 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces and over 150 aircraft and more than 25,000 personnel are scheduled to participate. The theme of RIMPAC 2024 is “Partners: Integrated and Prepared.” This year's iteration features a wide range of integrated capabilities from disaster relief to maritime security operations and from sea control to complex all domain warfighting, all to prepare multinational partners towards operating collaboratively to enhance our collective capabilities towards defending a free and open Indo-Pacific.
For further questions, I would refer you to Indo-Pacific Command Public Affairs. And with that I'll be glad to take your questions. We'll go to Associated Press, Lita.
Q: Thanks, Pat. Two things. One, can you give us an update on the pier and plans to reattach it? And then as a follow up on the secretary's visit today, can you say whether there was any discussion about loosening restrictions on the use of long range weapons? That's obviously one of the things that President Zelenskyy has asked about just as recently as Sunday, sort of urging Western nations to loosen restrictions.
Did that come up during his meeting with the minister? Was there any, I guess, any forward movement on that? And one little, tiny thing. I'm a little confused. He said he was sort of talking about announcing; didn't his comments sort of already announce it?
GEN. RYDER: OK. Well, we'll start with the pier first. You asked how the pier is. The pier is great. The pier is still in Ashdod, has not been re-anchored. We're continuing to monitor weather conditions right now. So pending those, we'll be able to provide updates in the near future in terms of potential re-anchoring date.
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Defense Now July - 2024
• DN July 2024
Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder briefs the news media at the Pentagon.
Film Credits: Defense.gov