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馬蒂斯會見印尼外長蕾特諾(美國國務院圖)
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中評社香港1月23日電(記者 臧涵)美國國防部長馬蒂斯22日晚抵達印尼首都雅加達,開始為期一周的東南亞訪問,之後他還將前往越南。此次東南亞之行,希望在面對中國實力崛起競爭力迅速增強的國際背景下,加強與印度尼西亞和越南在軍事方面的合作。他還表示,訪問越南時將討論南海自由航行一事。
馬蒂斯告訴記者:“我們分享太平洋,這個以和平命名的海洋應該保持其和平,讓所有使用和生活在這裡的國家都繁榮發展。這就是為什麼我們要在這裡。”
以下為馬蒂斯與記者對話英文實錄:
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES N. MATTIS:So first of all, thank you. I know you had to wake up mighty early to do this one. And -- but that's good. It builds character, I find, after a few decades, you know? But thanks for coming out. It's a very, very long airplane flight, so I appreciate you taking the time. And we'll go into Indonesia and Vietnam. And with Indonesia, we're dealing with a country that we have very -- very good military to military relations.
We probably engage with the Indonesian military more than any other nation anywhere in terms of mil-to-mil engagements. But let me just -- you know, as you -- coming out of Washington right now, let's just look at how we're going forward. We released the national defense strategy last week, as you know. And what we've talked about it prioritizing preparedness and making a lot of change, urgent change.
But I noted that I had three lines of effort. Is there a problem here? Pardon?
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