During a House Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) spoke about the United States' relationships with allies amid President Trump's tariffs.
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00:00Yields here not recognized as a ranking member. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to follow up a little bit on some of the earlier comments around the tariff thing. Not trying to be excessively argumentative, but I'm curious about the answer to this question. So the premise that was given us is that basically the reason we're doing all the tariffs is we have bad relationships with all of these countries. They're using us in essence. It is not a mutually beneficial relationship. It's one where we're given too much and they're taking too much.
00:30And that's at least a theory. But I'm just curious. General Brunson, you work with South Korea. Do you view our relationship with South Korea as mutually beneficial or do you think they're taking advantage of us?
00:43Congressman, I view it as mutually beneficial.
00:45Thank you. And Admiral Paul Power, it's tougher with you because you've got a whole bunch of different countries to worry about. But is there a country out there that you think is taking advantage of us that we're partnering with in Australia, Philippines, Japan, Taiwan?
01:00Any of these places? Or do you view our relationships with these countries right now?
01:04You know, prior to all the current, you know, contested stuff? Is it mutually beneficial or are we being taken advantage of?
01:12Ranked member, from my seat with the military instrument, it is mutually beneficial.
01:17So, and Mr. I know you've ducked all of this because, you know, DOD doesn't put tariffs in place.
01:24But it is a whole of government thing, as you said in your statements, you know, in diplomacy, development, certainly trade and business is important part of it.
01:37It impacts your job.
01:39I mean, it clearly impacts.
01:40If we have an antagonistic relationship with the country in Admiral Paparro's region, I would trust that you would think about that.
01:48I mean, what you do about it is highly debatable.
01:50But it's not really your answer that tariffs and trade relationships have nothing to do with our national security interests or with the Department of Defense's mission in the Indo-Pacific, is it?
02:00Mr. Ranking member, I will speak to what I know, which is the defense relationship that we have, the relationships we have with our allies and partners throughout the region.
02:11In that regard, we have strong, very strong relationships.
02:18And like I indicated earlier, the engagements that I've personally had, that I've seen the secretary have with his counterparts, all indicate that we have very strong relationships.
02:29So you would not say that we're being taken advantage of by these countries?
02:33You would view the relationships, much as Admiral Paparro and General Brunson have said, as mutually beneficial?
02:39I'll say two things, Ranking Member.
02:41One, they are mutually beneficial.
02:44But two, our allies and partners absolutely need to do more.
02:49And that means spend more.
02:50That means buy more of the right capabilities to strengthen our deterrence posture.
02:56So there's absolutely more that they can.
02:59Do we need to do more?
03:01We all need to do more, Ranking Member.
03:03So it is a mutually beneficial relationship.
03:05And the last thing, and I know you are in an acting position.
03:08I confess I didn't look to see if somebody has been picked yet for your position.
03:12So I know you're not going to be there in a little while.
03:14But for everyone listening, for everyone involved, it's just not an unacceptable answer for the Department of Defense to say, well, that's not us.
03:20We're not paying any attention to it.
03:22And I'm not going to pin you down whether or not you support it or not.
03:25But it definitely is connected to our mission in the region to have all of this interrelated.
03:31And it really frightens me to think that you're like, well, the State Department is doing their thing.
03:35You know, the trade folks are doing their thing.
03:36And we're over here and we really don't pay any attention to them.
03:40That's not the right approach.
03:42It definitely needs to be more interrelated with that.
03:45And I thank the chairman for his indulgence.
03:47And I yield back.