In areas where we disagree, we will seek to manage competition responsibly because we recognize how important US-China relations are for the stability of the Asia-pacific.
We will also continue to work together with our long-time, steadfast allies to maximize regional security. We will ensure we have the military means to keep the peace. But we will not use our allies and partners, or the capabilities integral to their security, as bargaining chips.
In addition to the challenges presented by North Korea and China, there is another situation we must all work together to address for the good of our nations and to ensure a healthy future for our peoples.
Violent extremist organizations, including fighters returning from the middle east, and local individuals radicalized by malicious ideologies, seek to gain ground in Southeast Asia.
Just last week, ISIS-linked militants in the Philippines attempted to seize part of Marawi city in Mindanao, attacking innocents, killing police and military, and taking worshipers hostage.
ISIS also claimed responsibility for the brutal bombings that killed three police officers at a Jakarta bus station. We stand in sympathy and support of those whose lives have been brutalized by such criminals.
Together we must act now to prevent this threat from growing, otherwise it will place long-term regional security at risk and stunt regional economic dynamism. We need only look at the chaos and violence that our friends in the mid-east are contending with to see why we must swiftly and jointly address threats to our region.
As President Trump emphasized during his first foreign trip to the mid-east, we must defeat extremist organizations wherever they attempt to establish roots. Not just in Iraq and Syria but also here in Southeast Asia.
As such, the US remains committed to leading the defeat-ISIS coalition effort – an international team of 66 nations plus the Arab league, NATO, Interpol, and the European Union – fully committed at the political and military levels to the destruction of ISIS.
The heart-breaking attack on a city in Mindanao reminds us that terrorists intentionally make battlefields where the innocent live; these are also humanitarian fields, and we must all devote ourselves to ensuring a stable environment in which violent extremist organizations wither and die.
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