 Our presence and our partnerships with our allies in the region are increasingly important. The opportunity to spend time here, interface with our partners, is vital. It's so much easier to work side by side with somebody who you've met, who you know, who you can interact with on a personal level, not strictly on a professional level. Everything that we do during ballet coutain is integrated. There is no aspect of the exercise that happens just US or just AFP. Every step along the way builds our ability to work together to solve not just military crises, but humanitarian crises. The people themselves, they welcome the HA activities with open arms. Through ballet coutain, it is substantial because now when you see those school buildings being constructed and being used by the children, they will immediately remember that this was through the effort of ballet coutain. The Philippines and the United States have a shared history. When we do ballet coutain, it's like you are meeting a friend that you've known for a long time. This is how we see ballet coutain. There are things that you can do alone, but the act of doing it together makes you more effective. It's a force multiplier. It only goes to show that by working together, we will achieve more results, then you will have more success. Coutain strengthens the Philippine and US alliance by having a shared approach to safety and security in the region. What we're doing here, and the reason that we're doing it, is providing both trust and confidence to make our communities better. We gain as much from the Philippines as the Philippines gained from us. It is through this shared relationship that we both grow stronger, we improve our interoperability, and this ensures peace and prosperity within the alliance and within the Republic of the Philippines.