00:00How seriously do you take this new mutual defense treaty? Is this a return to the Cold War?
00:05Is it being seen? Are you seeing additional weapons moving from North Korea to Ukraine?
00:13How serious do you take this new relationship?
00:16And just to clarify, you said Vietnam. Do you mean DPRK?
00:19I mean, North Korea. Yeah, North Korea.
00:21Yeah. I mean, it's obviously something that we're continuing to monitor very closely. As you've
00:28heard others in the U.S. government talk about, there is no surprise here that they've been
00:32developing and fostering this relationship. So it is something that we're going to take
00:37seriously, and it's something that we're going to continue to monitor.
00:40But what we've also said is that our focus when it comes to the Indo-Pacific region,
00:45and broadly speaking worldwide, is to work with like-minded nations on security and stability
00:51throughout the world to include the Indo-Pacific region. So we're going to continue to strengthen
00:56and bolster those alliances and those relationships with the idea that our focus is on peace,
01:02security, and stability, but certainly are also going to continue to keep a close eye on this.
01:07And in Vietnam, Putin said that Russia is considering changing its nuclear doctrine,
01:12its first use doctrine. Do you take that seriously, or is this just nuclear saber rattling?
01:17You know, we've seen nothing at this point that would require us to change our own strategic
01:23forces posture. Again, it's not the first time that we've heard of reckless
01:28nuclear saber rattling. It's certainly irresponsible for countries that maintain
01:33these types of capabilities to make those kinds of comments. But again, I go back to what I said
01:38earlier, that our focus is on security and stability, not only in the region but throughout
01:42the world. And so we'll continue to stay focused on that. Let me go here.
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