Lloyd J. Austin III Secretary of Defence | Official website
The United States has endorsed a Statement of Principles for Indo-Pacific Defense Industrial Base Collaboration following extensive consultations with U.S. allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific region and globally, including the recent Maluhia Talks at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, Hawaii.
"Together with our friends in the region, we're breaking down national barriers and better integrating our defense industries," Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said at the 2024 Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. "We're also working together to fortify the shared capacity of the defense industrial bases of our allies and partners. That's why so many countries—including the United States—are endorsing a Statement of Principles today to strengthen the resilience of the region's defense industrial bases," which will benefit security and stability in this region and beyond.
The Statement of Principles for Indo-Pacific Defense Industrial Base Collaboration aims to address recent global challenges and the current security environment by enhancing defense industrial resilience through collaborative actions, both bilaterally and multilaterally, while adhering to national policies.
The guiding principles for these collaborative actions include:
- Ensuring shared defense industrial resilience is vital to regional security, economic security, and prosperity.
- Strengthening defense industrial resilience requires expanding industrial base capability, capacity, workforce; increasing supply chain resilience; promoting defense innovation; improving information sharing; encouraging standardization; reducing barriers to cooperation; mitigating potential vulnerabilities; and facilitating collaboration.
- Optimizing collaboration necessitates accounting for participants' needs, capabilities, and comparative advantages consistent with free market competition and intellectual property protection.
- Collaborative action should involve not only governments but also industry, capital providers, academia, and other partnerships.
- Fostering further dialogue is essential to promote collaboration and increase shared defense industrial resilience.
This announcement follows the January 2024 release of the Department of Defense's National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS), which identified engagement with allies and partners to expand global defense production as a key effort toward advancing resilient supply chains. The NDIS emphasizes that the Department "must work with allies and partners through both multilateral and bilateral agreements to boost defense production, innovation, and overall capability."
