 It's wonderful to see a full house on a Monday morning. My name is Heather Conley. I'm Senior Vice President here at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and I look after Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic. I am so delighted for a conversation that we're going to have today. What an extraordinary opportunity. For me, this is the first time that we have gathered the Chief of the Norwegian Naval Chief and the Vice Chief from the United States. So I am very much looking forward to this great conversation about not only today's maritime domain challenges, but how, as allies, we cooperate together. Nothing could be more important than the backdrop as Secretary Kerry is in Paris forging together a coalition to combat ISIS. So we have a very timely topic and three extraordinary colleagues who can help us understand these complexities. We have about an hour of great conversation. Each of our colleagues are going to come up and give some overview remarks, and then when they've concluded their remarks, I'm going to do a moderated dialogue for a little bit, and then we look forward to welcoming you into our conversation. That gives you some time to ask the really hard questions, and then we will have a brief Q&A at the very end of our conversation. So without further ado, let me begin by introducing Vice Admiral Schimpf, Axel Schimpf, who is the Chief of the German Navy. Prior to his service as the Chief, which he began in October of 2012, he was the Chief of the German Naval Staff, as well as the Commander of the German Naval Staff. After Admiral Schimpf gives his remarks, we will turn to Rear Admiral Lyle Saunas. Chief of the Royal Norwegian Navy. And if many of you have been maybe getting some invitations, if the glorious frigate is in Baltimore, and maybe Admiral Saunas will tell you a little bit about that opportunity, but Admiral Saunas has held previous positions as Chief of Naval Operations at the National Joint Headquarters, as well as he has been the Commander of the Norwegian Coast Guard until 2014. And then last but not least, we are delighted to welcome the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michelle Howard, who's had a distinguished career most recently. She served as Deputy Commander of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command and as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Operations, Plans, and Strategy. Now she currently serves as the 38th Vice Chair of Naval Operations. I told you you were in store for a great conversation, and without further ado, Admiral Schimpf, the floor is yours. Thank you and welcome. Thank you, Heather, for your kind words of introduction and your warm welcome. I just have to correct a little bit. I started my tour as Chief of the Navy in April 2010. 2010, 2010, so it's already a long time. You can see it. I'm a little bit pale. Yes, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is, of course, a real great pleasure and honor for me to be here at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today. I appreciate this exceptional opportunity to share some thoughts on the challenges of cooperation in the maritime domain with this distinct audience, and I'm looking forward to a real inspiring discussion. Let me start with some brief remarks about the overall political and strategic context from a German perspective. You're all aware that the global financial crisis has had a significant impact on the defense budgets in the Western world. Many armed forces of our allies and partner nations are experiencing major cuts. Navies across Europe are reducing the numbers of their ships, submarines, helicopters or aircraft significantly, and some even abandon certain capabilities entirely. And also the German armed forces are currently undergoing a very challenging process of reorientation, including the reorganization of our command and control structures, as well as a realignment of our entire military capabilities. And beyond that, we suffer from a very critical demographic development in Germany, and you know, we abandoned our conscription two years ago that makes the situation for the armed forces even more complicated and challenging. But despite the above mentioned factors and restraints, we are aiming at being better prepared for future challenges to our security in a highly dynamic world. Considering our geographical position in the heart of Central Europe, our far-reaching integration in the European Union and as an integral part of NATO, the underlying principles of German security policy are straightforward. First, we will always act collectively with our partners and in close dialogue with the regional actors as part of the international community, and here in particular the United Nations. Second, we will always use all available instruments of foreign and security policy, of which the military is only one out of many. Undoubtedly, that requires a high degree of interoperability, not only between multinational military forces, but also with non-military actors. It requires the will to cooperate on the basis of a well-developed mutual trust between all partners and confidence in their respective capabilities. With respect to the 21st century security challenges in the maritime domain, we are committed to maintain credible maritime forces that offer a very broad spectrum of naval capabilities. That is mirrored in the wide range of operational deployments the German Navy has been engaged in over the past decades. Just a couple of examples, NATO's counter-terrorism operation Active Endeavour is one of those operational deployments which has a visible effect on security and stability in the Mediterranean region. And as part of NATO's standing naval groups, the German Navy is in regular support of that mission. And another very successful example of our maritime engagement in the Mediterranean is Operation Unifil of the Lebanese coast. Apart from active maritime surveillance, this mission, I think you know that, is about capacity building. We are supporting the Lebanese Navy in establishing and maintaining a coastal radar network including the respective training. And this has a significant impact on the security and stability in the eastern Mediterranean region. And ladies and gentlemen, in light of the situation in neighbouring Syria, I think that stabilizing influence had not lost any of its importance. And in that context we were also a strong supporter of the U.S. of the, sorry, U.N. joint mission for the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons. Not only our contribution with the frigate for the protection of the U.S. ship Cape Ray, but also the opportunity for Finland to embark a boarding team on our frigate underlines the broad, mutual and multinational cooperation in this very important mission. And finally the U.L.A.T. Operation Atalanta together with NATO Operation Open Shield and the International Task Force 151 is probably the most prominent recent example of successful multinational cooperation and coordination in the maritime domain. The number of piracy incidents, I think you all are aware of that, has dramatically declined due to our coordinated international efforts. And in that context we are also able to improve existing relationships and important links with the Indian Ocean community and even beyond that. And there is common agreement that our maritime operations have been successful in contributing to security in the maritime domain, and they still are. However, ladies and gentlemen, we have to realize that the current operational reality primarily reflects the lower end of our operational capabilities. Without question, today's complex security challenges call for our navies to be capable, trained and equipped for the full spectrum of possible missions, including the high intensity operations. So we will say from diplomatic to kinetic, that is a wide range. And consequently, together with our allies and partners, we need to have an interest in retaining our unique maritime capabilities. Thus, the German navies continuously committed to NATO's standing naval groups. We are a reliable contributor to the standing naval forces and apart from deploying units to both standing NATO maritime groups and the standing NATO MCM groups continuously will also take the lead on a regular basis even on short notice when necessary. They, the standing naval forces, are not only a very valuable tool to reach out and promote cooperation and interoperability, even more importantly, they provide a capable naval force in support of contingency, readiness and response. And ladies and gentlemen, the development in Ukraine bonds NATO even closer. The reassurance measures for the Eastern European allies are, I think, a very strong political message. And the German navy is contributing to all of NATO's planned activities, including taking command of the standing NATO MCM group 1, the deployment of a submarine as an additional support to standing NATO maritime group 2 and additional maritime patrol aircraft missions in the Baltic area. We do this on a weekly basis. And the message is clear. We want to send. You can count on the German navy, although it is a very small one. You can count on her as a reliable and capable partner and, in fact, our neighbors in Eastern Europe appreciate that. And credible high-end capability, however, requires constant training and continued development together with trusted partners. And for this matter, we are in a very close and trustful cooperation with the U.S. navy. The deployment of one of our air defense frigates, it was Hamburg, the deployment of one of our air defense frigates as an integral part of a U.S. carrier strike group, it was the Eisenhower strike group, or the deployment of one of our 212 class submarines to the U.S. east coast for trials and exercises, I think are very successful examples for a solid and very good and substantial cooperation. But also our significant contribution to this year's exercise Obangem Express in the context of U.S.-African program Africa Partnership Station underlines our commitment as a partner to provide credible maritime capabilities. I think, ladies and gentlemen, it's fair to say that despite the vast challenges the German navy faces as a result of the reorientation of the entire armed forces, it's not only reorientation, it's significantly also downsizing, we are still quite engaged and we should be. In today's globalized and challenging world we cannot set the level of maritime provision too low. Collectively, the Alliance, as well as through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, we must, we all must retain the ability to conduct the full spectrum of maritime operations. We must remain ready to fight at sea and from the sea if and whenever needed. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Admiral, distinguished guests, organizers, ladies and gentlemen. Heather, thank you for inviting me to this excellent panel and I'm honored to be here together with such nice colleagues. And looking at my fellow panel members here today, it's clear to me that I represent the small nation and the small navy voice. So let that be my way into the topic of today. Before starting on my points, let me provide you with some background to better understand where I come from. Norway is a small nation with a population about five millions. That's Rhode Island, isn't it? However, it's a maritime and arctic nation with global maritime interests. I stand before you as the chief of the Royal Norwegian Navy, chief of the modern Navy and Coast Guard, situated on the northern fringes of the Eurasian continent with a common border to a major strategic military base complex. Chief of a Navy of an arctic nation with a vast maritime area of interest and responsibilities and the area of responsibility is nearly the size of the Mediterranean Ocean from the North Sea to the Arctic High North. And finally, chief of the Navy of a truly maritime nation with global maritime interests. The strategic landscape is shifting both in Asia and in Europe, and we are facing more uncertainties underlining the need for cooperation, commitments, and demands of contingency planning. And this leads to my first point today. Norwegian policy is funded on the principle that the UN Charter and NATO Article 5 of the Washington Treaty is the key to Norwegian security and defense policy. The collective commitments and capabilities that NATO provides are fundamental. However, NATO is far more than a military alliance. It's a transatlantic political community of shared values. The alliance is based on the fundamental idea that liberal democracies, based on their shared values, have decided that our security is stronger when we cooperate collectively. The strength of this simple yet fundamental idea was proven during the Cold War. However, it also holds true today. In fact, I believe the recent events in Ukraine demonstrate the value of NATO as a political community based on common values. And this year, actually, Norway have been in charge of two out of four NATO standing maritime forces and was the first group that moved into the Baltic when Ukraine was invaded. The global maritime situation is fluent and hard to predict, but it affects all modern states. At least to my second point I want to make here today. The premise itself of common maritime challenges. While they clearly exist, they also contain a great deal of variation. The global maritime outlook is not the same from Washington, D.C., from Berlin or from Oslo. We have all different inputs to the equation, different ambitions, different level of resources, different historical background, but we do share common values and the willingness to share the burden of establishing good order at sea. If we are to have an aligned set of goals and we are to operate together effectively, the basis then is to create a common understanding of what's going on. We are doing this today to some extent, but we need to develop this further. We need to take a clear responsibility to share approach and to create arenas and meeting places where this can take place in a normal manner. It is, of course, a matter of trust. Operations like the extractions of chemical weapons from Syria, which was led by Denmark and Norway, had support by Chinese, Russia, Germany, UK, U.S. It was a success. The fight against piracy in the Gulf of Aden is a multinational operation. And even exercises like RIMPEC, as we have been participating in this year, are examples how nations today globally comes together and cooperates to build common security. Finally, my last point following the premise of common maritime challenges, and I guess that is because I'm Norwegian, I would like to talk about Arctic. From an Arctic nation, let me use the Arctic challenge as an example. Climate change has opened a new commercial region in the Arctic, and attention with regard to the development of the Arctic is high. From a Norwegian perspective, security tension in the Arctic is very low. Most nations have established their Arctic strategy built on their national interest, and the Arctic Council is leading the political process to meet common maritime challenges. The region lacks surveillance, communication, and maritime capabilities and resources to operate. All nations recognize the need to build new capabilities and infrastructure, and the cost of this is the key factor in today's fiscal environment. The question then is how to organize this? How to develop this from a topic of discussion here at the Washington think tank to sound operating capability? In my opinion, the solution would be to broaden the cooperation among the Arctic states and include others with an interest in the Arctic. A comprehensive approach to the challenges in the Arctic implies close cooperation between military forces, coast guards, and a number of civilian agencies as well as other countries in the region. An initiative like the Arctic Coast Guard Forum and other agencies should be established. Again, the answer must be to create arenas and meeting places for the agencies and states involved, and from this, functions develop coordination, cooperation, and common goal for Arctic development. So let me return to the small navy perspective and put out three aspects. First, from my perspective, it is clear that small nations' main contribution to a global maritime situation starts at home. Our ability to keep our maritime house in order is the foundation. This is, however, more than just patrolling on waters and implies using all maritime resources available to contribute to a safe maritime operating environment on the global scale. This will in particular contribute to better shared situation awareness seen even small nations like Norway can have a global maritime footprint that can provide important insights in areas of interest. Second, ability to meet challenges to get together rests on the ability to operate together. I must say this ability rests to agree on the larger partners in the corporation. It is their expertise and know-how we all need to tap into to become part of an efficient fighting force. In order to do this, they must be willing to invite us in, share their expertise, show patience when dealing with us. And finally, we must routinely operate together. Not only meeting up in exercises and standing NATO groups in home waters, I think we need to operate together on a global scale. This may sound ambitious coming from a small nations view and with the current constraints in the fiscal environment. However, it affects our national interest. The challenge is then to find opportunities where the smaller navies can meaningful contribute on a global scale and still operate within their means. As it is our navy and our nations by central celebration this year as a constitution and as a navy, let me just end with a little story. This year, it's been my pleasure to demonstrate what the new modern navy can do and as I said, we've been leading two out of four NATO standing forces this year. We deployed a frigate to Hawaii, participating in RIMPAC and we have been part of extraction of the weapons of Syria, the chemical weapons of Syria. But addition to that, my 15 coast guard ships have been patrolling up to 84, 30 degrees north in open ocean for the first time in history. And it's just showing that the eyes that we all think are there are not there anymore. And they've been doing a good governance of our resources, protecting our environment and that's an equal success history. But this is not a new thing to Norway. Let's move back to 1869. Norway was already then a maritime power with regard to a substantial shipping sector and part of the Swedish king's domain. Then as now, global shipping was commerce and an important player on a global scale and political interest followed. It was deemed political important to show the Norwegian flag in areas and events where we clearly had interests. Therefore in September 1869, the Norwegian warship, the North Star left Norway for an international deployment. She was part of the opening of the Suez Canal in Port Said in Egypt around Africa to South America, visiting important ports as Buenos Aires and Montevideo, which was the big ports at that time. And next she headed to the Caribbean and eastern coast of the United States and after one year in 1870, she was treated with a hero's welcome. Military sea power was and still is the international currency of influence. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for the kind introduction for all of us. And I also want to thank CSIS for hosting this discussion today because this is absolutely a critical topic. I think not just for our US Navy but for our nation. And for me it's an honor to be here with naval leaders like Admiral Schimp and Admiral Saunas. And it's more than just the visible relationship. They are, their countries are reliable partners and but these two have provided outstanding leadership to their navies and have personally reached out to me long before this forum in the interest of deepening ties between our navies and our country and I thank you for that. So I happen to believe that navies lead the way among services when it comes to collaboration among friends and allies and I think the sustained relationship amongst our maritime forces and NATO is perhaps the strongest and best examples of this collaboration. And interestingly enough over the years as I have formed that opinion I've had it reinforced by others. It was an Army journal who once said it's fascinating to me the way navies can combine at sea with such ease and he was referring to the counter piracy operations off the Gulf of Aden. He said I think it's much harder for us as armies to combine and achieve that same level of synergy and maybe that is because of the uniqueness of the maritime domain but the similarity of how we have to approach it in our ability to operate and eventually fight. The relationship between our three navies goes beyond NATO itself. The navies of the United States, Norway and Germany share robust and deep friendship rooted in a long history of trusted partnerships in and beyond the European waters. My chief of naval operations, Admiral Greenert believes in maritime partnerships and cooperation and in the advantage of forging a global network of navies. In a recent proceedings article he said as the world becomes more complex and the oceans less secure we are compelled to strengthen the bonds of international maritime cooperation and we have seen this again and again with Germany and Norway and along with NATO as a whole and really I would say that relationship with NATO is the foundation of this network of navies. Navies have seen the advantages of cooperation since sailors have been going to sea and is there anything new or different today and why should we stay focused on this and keep working at it. Well I'd like to pound on a point that Admiral Sanis made. We have and there are in this world countries that stand for freedom and peace and these countries that stand for freedom and peace face problems of unprecedented scope complexity and difficulty and I think we sometimes forget how important it is this concept of freedom and since I've been serving in this Navy freedom has meant much to our government in guaranteeing freedom one of my first events was in the Gulf War Kuwait had been invaded their sovereign territory had been invaded and the people were no longer free and you think about more recent events it can be criminal where an individual is kidnapped at sea has no right to be kidnapped to be free or current modern-day sovereign incursions and it is the shared value I think amongst the NATO allies and freedom it doesn't matter the type of our government it is the shared value that we believe in the UN Charter have signed up to it we have this alliance and that freedom is important and we do have different perspectives but that makes us stronger when the destroyer Hamburg came into port in Norfolk I had a great opportunity to go on board and talk to the crew and I got into a very lengthy conversation with the EXO Christian his concept of freedom is more powerful and near than I will ever have he started life in East Berlin his parents escaped with him he thought often as a child about what it meant for his grandparents who were on the other side of the wall and he grew up in a Germany that was eventually reunited so Christian has a very real sense of what it means to be denied freedom in this modern world and what a real sense it means to have freedom restored and so he serves in the German Navy because this concept of freedom has value for him because for all people who live in free countries and that that commonality of shared values I agree with Amazon is a big part of our strength from terrorism to piracy from illegal trafficking and people and products to humanitarian needs and wake of natural disasters and not to mention cyber today there is ballistic missile and nuclear threats and to successfully confront all these emerging and evolving 21st century challenges we must confront them together very simply put we are better together and for those who serve in the global commons of the maritime domain international cooperation is and always has been a daily way of life so to illustrate some of the recent what and where of maritime cooperation I'll offer you a few real world realities both Lars and Admiral Schimp have talked about the Middle East and the dangerous challenge of the Syrian chemical weapons and the combined operations of the Royal Norwegian and German navies along with our partners in Denmark and without this combined approach we would not have achieved our strategic objective of destroying this threat to global stability in the easter men warships that stand to watch to ensure Europe remains secure from Middle East and ballistic missile threats and these warships are often accompanied by NATO allies and while US ships search the skies NATO ships keep an eye on the horizon keeping our ships safe from immediate attack and as we continue to lead the way in the fight against radical terrorism the value of the carrier was once again shown by President Obama ordered strikes on ISIL last month the carrier was there and available in Europe US and our NATO allies routinely enter and exit the Black Sea in coordination with Turkey and in insurance our combined presence there reminds NATO partners like Bulgaria and Romania that we will be there to support them and ensure international waters stay open for business and off the east and west coast of Africa combine NATO forces combat piracy and provide training to our African partners on policing local waters and off the coast of western Africa and central and south America we sell together to fight illicit trafficking in the Indo-Pacific region both Norway and Germany recently participated in the biannual rim of the Pacific exercise the world's largest maritime military exercise our German partners provided exercise partners and Norway demonstrated a strike missile shot from a frigate and also in that region navies from multiple nations worked together to search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 this international search and rescue operation was conducted by as many as 43 vessels and 40 aircraft in the South China Sea of Thailand Malacca Strait Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean the magnitude of support for the Malaysian airline search and the composition of nations and aircraft and ships clearly show that we can form relationships and traditional and non-traditional maritime partners operate together and produce innovative ways to respond to different types of crises I'd like to talk a little bit about why of cooperation how do we strengthen these bonds of cooperation first there's the fundamental point of interoperability which includes people equipment data and then there's the building of confidence and proficiency through regular exercise and operations despite all that despite sophisticated technology personal relationships are still the foundation of interoperability and through opportunities like personnel exchanges war colleges and the international sea power symposium this week in Newport we can share ideals from each other and figure out what works and what each partner brings to the team and build a common language to enable better and more standardized ways of interaction interpersonal relationships with our naval counterparts help to build trust and enduring friendships that prove invaluable during times of crisis and indeed sometimes are the only conduit for which information can be shared and it was a Chinese diplomat who once said who once told me as we reached out to our Chinese counterparts in the navy there are times when military people can talk when diplomats cannot it is the knowledge that we have friends and allies that we can call for help that allows us literally to weather storms and find safe harbor so we must continue to improve the interoperability of our equipment as data of equipment and data as well and this includes working at planning, coordination communication and leveraging partnerships to reduce capability gaps the only way we'll get better is the interoperability of our people equipment and data is through the rich opportunities provided by consistent combined exercises and operations and this is illustrated for example by the German destroyer Hamburg deploying with the USS Eisenhower carrier strike group in support of operations in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf achieving our shared objectives depends on maritime cooperation Germany and Norway by the kind of reliable capable partner that serves as the bedrock of global network of navies and as we work together to facilitate interoperability and build trust and as we all continue to recognize both the value and necessity of working together we all become stronger and we will all stand ready to answer the call to fight and defeat challenges to freedom and security and beyond thank you Admiral Howard, Admiral Sadness, Admiral Schimp, thank you that was really a rich discussion there were so many things to pull from it's going to be hard to restrain myself I have many questions but I want to also welcome our audience I do want to remind everyone that this isn't on the record conversation after I throw out a couple of questions to our panelists I'd invite you to leave your phones to pass around if you could keep your comments very short and your question crisp that will help us pull in a couple of questions and then give an opportunity for our panelists to provide some answers there were so many issues and really important statements came out of it I think Admiral Schimp your comment on don't set the vision too low even in terms of the disparity of when budgets are under strain militaries are transforming that it's important not to set our vision too low and I think Admiral Howard, you're saying that we can combine with ease and the power at which and I think it's not a well-known story the Syrian chemical weapons removal how collaborative that was with partners that we may not normally collaborate with and then of course our vision continues to be a success and we know new challenges the Gulf of Guinea and others will present to us that this is very powerful as well as NATO's partnership relationship and the unifil example of the building partner capacity so very critical so I thank you again for those really important comments a question that I have to each of you is what is your greatest challenge in your position is it budget political will and speaking to security policymakers that perhaps are reluctant to not set that vision too low is it just the complexity of the crises it seems in every region you're being more and more in demand and sometimes resources are constrained so I leave you with that question for each and then I'd like to pull out for each of you the question that you each tackled and that is really what are the maritime challenges present and future that may stem from the ongoing crisis in Ukraine black sea was mentioned I think Admiral Howard I think this is an important issue there is quite a bit of NATO naval presence in the black sea and what does that mean the Baltic sea what is that perspective and what should we be looking for and then Admiral Sanis and your comment on the Arctic we are starting to see a lot of pronouncements by the Russian leaders about the Arctic and enhancing their military modernization along the northern sea route does that have any troubling signs for us what should we think about that and then finally I'd love your thoughts you talked to each of you about the Pacific Rim exercises for impact where we had a German observer in that exercise a Norwegian frigate and a really important major exercise in a region that we know freedom of navigation is so vital additional thoughts you'd like to add so with that Admiral Schiff I think we'll just move down the line and then we'll turn over the last questions to our audience thank you thank you very much and of course you asked me earlier what makes me keep awake overnight and I just looked like a baby so I wasn't going to ask and of course there are some big challenges but I have to be very honest it's for the moment not the political situation it's the personnel in the German Navy because after having abandoned our conscription almost overnight the situation was extremely difficult to get young people and the demographic development in Germany is also difficult so there are no young people on the market which are ready to join the armed forces and the unemployment rate is very low in Germany and that traditionally it brings a lot of people in industry and not to the armed forces but we are in a good way and I think so far it really worked that we could with the right approach to prioritization could really support all the important missions where we in an international cooperative approach we are being asked for and that is a good news and I think I pointed it out a little bit during my little speech so of course in Germany the politicians I think that's everywhere the same but in Germany it's even stronger than everywhere else the politicians decide the parliament has to get approval for missions where the armed forces will join and I think over the past months wherever there was a need to react also on the crisis in Ukraine it went very smooth and so we could join Ukraine it was the Syria chemical weapon program so there was a lot of challenges where we could respond on short notice despite the critical situation we are in so I think the key to success is not only to have own capabilities but to have solid ways for a cooperative, credible cooperative solutions and I think that works and you raised the issue of impact I think it's important not for us, for all of us not only to stress or to put a special focus on the transatlantic link but also to send a signal that global scale cooperation is the key to success and yes so far we were just participating with an observer but the ideas of course someday in the future depending of course on the scarce resources to be involved maybe with a unit I think it is important this outreach that we just doesn't focus on our home waters and the waters where we operated over the past decades the challenges are global and the solutions also have to be global and I think sharing the same values is a very solid basis I think it was stressed several times and we are there on a real good way thank you very much well being in the role of a force provider at the moment I also sleep very well at night but I think readiness of forces is a key at the moment with the strategic shift we have had we have been fortunate to have forces ready to support operations but I must say that to keep a threshold against military aggression small nations need to come together with bigger nations to have a better readiness together to avoid military escalation and this also will increase our quality as a war fighting force and it's necessary so I think that is what our foremost on my thought at the moment with regard to the Arctic I'll come back to that by the end but I think what we see now what's the reason why Norway is going to impact is that Norway used to be a nation heavily supported by all NATO nations because we had this geostratic position on the northern flank of NATO so most navies know Norway and Norway the Norwegian Navy doesn't know anywhere else to be so I think with the new navy which we have created which is highly interoperable with the US Navy it's a political policy change that we would like to show that we will support our allied nations even though they are big as US and it's in our national interest to meet the common challenges on a global scale as I was talking about so that was the main reason for sending a frigate to impact to demonstrate our of course our new strike missile naval strike missile and promote a very good and high quality military industry I'm honest and to work with a lot of nations like we can do in RIMPAC is a challenge and a good challenge for our sailors and commanding officers to meet and they learn a lot from that it's again on so many levels to us to do such a thing so I'm really glad we can do it and I hope to do it again Arctic all the Arctic nations have agreed that the Sea of the Law convention will be the foundation for developing the Arctic and but you know the strategic shift here is that what you see in the South China Sea nations start to bend and the convention to their favor does size matter in these things and yes some nations think so we smaller nations think no we think that there is a law and we should follow that so that is that is something that I can be worried about with regard to the military complex up in the Arctic from my experience up there is if you start to shoot you won't get the billion investment to explore your oil and gas in 20, 30 years so I think all Arctic nations are in favor of keeping this as stable as possible to ensure proper investments at least I hope they are wise enough to do that thank you very much Heather if I may I'd like to combine two of the questions in a different way so you referred to challenges and then you noted Admiral Schumpf said don't make your vision too low so let me talk about the Arctic and not making the vision too narrow and what happened with Cape Ray and how that developed inside the United States government and then with our partners as an example of what happens when the vision is broader and more inclusive so when you think about the Arctic and how we're predicting it's going to unfold over the next few decades we have to start with a much broader vision it is not Department of Defense in the Navy it's commerce it's transportation it's department of energy when you look at the potential for the future up there in terms of extraction and so that vision has to be homeland security it is our territorial waters and that speaks to the Coast Guard and activities such as tourism and all those other things that happen so the vision we have what is delightful is one of our times in history we have an opportunity not to be surprised the ice is not going to be melted tomorrow feeling pretty comfortable with that one it's probably going to happen over decades so we have time to build a vision that's inclusive and broad and looks at all these elements and what do we need to operate up there safely both in the commercial world and then hopefully never but in terms of a military response so it's everything from search and rescue potentially of energy folks tourists are up there tourists are up there to potentially search and rescue of military operations that might go up there and that there's some fundamentals we can get at now working inclusively we have to have better maritime domain awareness up there and that also speaks to inclusiveness all of our countries militaries are shaped differently so if I speak to Norway about maritime domain awareness we need to bring the air force in on the conversation that each of our functionalities are different our US Navy will augment Coast Guard for search and rescue but it's really the Coast Guard that does those functions but in other navies around the world it's all in one the Navy does those functions as well as the war fighting function so being more inclusive being broader in the vision and working at it now and setting us posturing ourselves that way is part of an answer of not being surprised when the ice is all melted decades from now the challenges nuclear weapons the existence of nuclear weapons has been around so long that it's intrinsic it's almost as if we don't think about it anymore and yet for the US Navy and I would say for the US Air Force strategic deterrence is our number one mission and that is our number one mission I would say also in terms of homeland defense but our forefathers our founding fathers when they talked about why we need a Navy talked about capricious tyrants nuclear weapons didn't exist when the Federalist papers were written and people were arguing but when you think about a country like North Korea developing nuclear weapons with reach, reach that comes to this country and arguably several countries around the world and the thought of a capricious tyrant with control of nuclear weapons that's what should keep you up at night so it's not the homeland peace it's what do you do with a capricious tyrant who has who's developing credible power with reach and that is worthwhile staying up at night and thinking about Thank you so much we're going to have a lightning round of questions so I'm going to just hold to three and please make them very quick so we can let our panelists have their concluding thoughts oh we know there's, thank you sir the next question out there will go right there the microphone is coming to you right there, thank you and please identify yourself and your affiliation Thank you, I'm Robbie Harris a former naval person you asked about Ukraine and if I may if I could broaden that to a a newly assertive Russia and if I could ask the panel members in addition to what NATO has committed to do now with respect to a newly assertive Russia what else should NATO do in the maritime domain to react to Russian assertion of power Any other question? One more very quickly right here in the middle please Thank you, my name is Jeanine Witten from Voice of Vietnamese Americans I would like to bring back some points that I've heard that you want to talk about the global corporations and the maritime corporations you would like to talk about the air forces with the importance of the carriers and also the share value, share information and the nuclear France so all of that when you look at the Asia Pacific, Indo-Pacific Ocean especially in the South China Sea with the potential all the problems with the ADIC and the potential islands with all the new developments upon the rocks to build into islands by China you think that we should have some corporations to also set the normal global norms for the Arctic and the whole international laws to be honored and also with that Germany and Norway think that the US should be the table for the uncloth should the US senate ratify the uncloth thank you oh Admiral Howard that one's for you I know your answer but we'll just have that that's a yes that has been it's interesting across decades I think many administrations position yes we should ratify that treaty and for us there's very realistic and day to day operational necessity behind being in compliance with that treaty thanks so question on Russia sort of just elaborating a little bit on the maritime challenges that Russia may pose in the future and then again any concluding thoughts on South China Sea the Indo-Pacific region and the challenges of the global comments and we'll have you all answer I think you asked the maritime challenges what is underway in NATO and what could be done beyond that of course we touched it and I touched it my short presentation that in the package of assurance or reassurance there is something underway we activated one of the standing NATO maritime groups we are underway with our maritime patrol aircraft beyond that of course we keep a sharp eye on the development which is something very special over the past years it's really a situation where they develop a lot of sophisticated systems to come back on the stage to be a significant player NATO is underway with some special initiatives which have been discussed on the summit in Wales with this defense planning package you know that we in NATO want to be better prepared with less deficiencies than we have right now and this defense planning packages I think also an interesting signal not only to Russia but to all who might challenge the alliance that we are willing to upgrade our capabilities to get away with deficiencies and to better position to take also short notice short notice challenges you know that as part of this readiness action plan NATO is about to create and introduce a very high readiness action group or readiness force which will have a sort of headquarters in the multinational North East so there are a lot of activities underway just to position NATO better than before just to overcome some deficiencies and otherwise we have just to watch how the situation is going to develop that is not really a good answer but when I look at my crystal ball I cannot see any more for the moment so if I could add to Admiral Schimps points what I read out of the NATO summit is that both Georgia and Ukraine will still be on the partnership program for integration and that is a strong political message but at the moment when Ukraine still there is no peace negotiation that are efficient at the moment I think in addition to what is said I know we have staff of participating in exercise of Odessa at the moment and there are some other training and exercise activity involving NATO in the country but I think the key is as Admiral Schimps said the high readiness force and the reassurance of the Baltic states and other of these former Soviet states are important for the stability of the region with regard to your question whether Russia and whether Norway or Germany are working with the US so they can adopt a law of the sea convention I think actually in the US strategic concept for the Arctic it stated as one of their goal is to convince Congress to adapt to that and I totally agree with them thank you so Ukraine and Russia is like many contingencies around the world there's maritime capacity navies do two things for their country they can assure and they can deter and one of the reasons they do that is there is a visibility component to both those objectives seeing is believing when you're talking about insurance of allies and deterrence so whether it's in the South China Sea if we stay back state side and go we're with you it's not much in the way of assurance and it's not much in the way of deterrence and we also have to remember the other component of deterrence is credible power there has to be strength so it is that capability forward and the knowledge that the nation is willing to use that capability that can often be a big deterrence factor and is obviously a huge assurance factor so in the end the best thing we can do is the United States Navy a state committed to presence being forward being a responsive option for whoever the president happens to be well I am assured that we have excellent colleagues that are monitoring our safety and protection so I can sleep well at night to answer your greatest challenges thank you I'm so pleased that you were able to come here before heading off to Newport for the International Sea Power Symposium this was such an important conversation I hope you'll come back and I thank you and please join me in thanking our panelists for a great discussion