Vice President's Remarks After a Meeting with Senior United States and Japanese Military Personnel

 1:45 P.M. (Local)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, I've just held an important meeting and very useful briefing for me with the senior commanders of the American and Japanese military forces. The close cooperation among these commanders reflects the character of our alliance. It's a relationship based on trust, respect and a deep understanding and commitment to facing security challenges together. We especially appreciate Japan's contributions to our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Japan is a great friend to the United States. Relations between our countries have never been better, and our alliance has never been more vital. (Applause.)

 The U.S. is firmly committed to the defense of our friends in Japan. As the security environment changes both regionally and globally, both the U.S. military and the Japanese Self Defense Forces are determined to remain modern and flexible. At the same time, we're working to enhance our joint capabilities to meet the dangers we both face, whether they involve weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles or terrorist cells.

This briefing gives me confidence that we are working to improve the interoperability of our forces -- strategic, operational and tactical. I want to thank the commanders for their presentations. I'm very pleased with what I've learned, and I look forward to reporting it to President Bush.

Thank you very much.

END 1:50 P.M. (Local)