This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Bachelor with Admiral Gary Ruffhead,

writing at real clear defense about sea lift needed to sustain combat operations in the event of a

catastrophe. That would be the PLA Navy attacking Taiwan and other allies in the Pacific, but I'm going to be

positive Admiral. I'm going to say that recently there were joint exercises

between the Republic of Korea's Coast Guard, the Japanese Self-Defense Coast Guard, the US

Coast Guard.

There have been plenty of instances to say that Japan is working with the Philippines that Australia is aware of all this and

Australia is working with Japan working with the Philippines working with the Republic of

Korea that is presented to me as a new day.

Is it as positive as I've been told it,

told to regard it, Admiral?

Well, I think these are very positive steps and I would say that one of the very encouraging developments has been the closer relationship between Japan and Korea at in the United States and I think that's very very powerful.

The other relationship that is evolving is with Japan, the Philippines and us.

Obviously Singapore is with Japan, the Philippines and us. Obviously, Singapore has always been a stalwart partner in that part of the world.

But it's great that we have the Coast Guard and the Navy's operating together, but we really do need to think more deeply about the logistics.

And my sense is that we need to start working with other

countries who have large merchant fleets, some of which are in Europe, Greece, Denmark, to look at,

you know, what would the expectations be if we needed to move large quantities of supplies into the Western Pacific?

I think the other area that we really need to give very, very serious thought to and there's been some

movement on it in the administration is that we have really lost our capability of building merchant ships at scale.

Korea and Japan still significant shipbuilding nations for a merchant fleet.

And I think that we should look at possibly partnering with those countries to begin to build a merchant fleet that can support the type of operations that we would expect in the Western Pacific, but also to begin to build some of these specialized

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