PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii -- It’s great to be here with you here today to welcome you to the 25th Rim of the Pacific exercise.
As Commander of Pacific Fleet, I’m the host of RIMPAC, and I’ll offer a few brief remarks before I turn you over to the real leader of RIMPAC, Vice Admiral Nora Tyson, who has brought Third Fleet staff forward to lead the exercise as the Combined Task Force Commander.

As I look at RIMPAC over the last 45 years and apply that to this year’s exercise, it strikes me that RIMPAC is about three core elements: inclusivity, continuity and place.

The first is inclusive.

It brings together 26 nations from North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

This is what the international maritime community does in ensuring that the norms, standards, rules and laws that have provided the great security and stability for prosperity that we’ve all enjoyed for the last 70 years.

Joined by a shared interest in maritime cooperation in the Pacific, we are all locals during RIMPAC – that’s regardless of geographic size, military might or economic strength.

It’s just one brilliant example of the inclusive, principled security network that Secretary Carter spoke about at the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore just a month ago.

The second element is continuity.

RIMPAC has also been a source of continuity for 45 years now with the U.S. Navy, attracting a broadening network of participants and observers more than any other maritime exercise.

Two of its original participants, Australia and Canada, have returned again and again since the very first RIMPAC in 1971, and the exercise has continued to grow as nations have recognized their prosperity is tied to security and stability of the Pacific, including new participants this year, Denmark, Germany and Italy.

It’s a recurring answer to the divisive angst and tensions that put security and stability at risk in this region.

The third element is place.

RIMPAC is about place, it’s about the oceans and the seas that connect our navies to the Indo-
Asia-Pacific, a vast maritime theater in which we are all deeply invested and share common
interests.

It is fitting that the world’s largest maritime exercise is centered on the world’s largest and most
important ocean.

Protecting and navigating these shared interests increasingly rests on the hulls of our ships, the
wings of our aircraft, and on the backs of every mariner represented here at RIMPAC.

Every nation represented here recognizes that fact, which is why they have invested in sending
maritime forces to this unique training opportunity.

That’s why we’re all here in the middle of the Pacific, for the world’s most inclusive and largest
naval exercise.

For those that have come here there is an expectation to set their differences aside in the
execution of RIMPAC to plan together, to rehearse together, and to hold inclusive receptions for
all participants to learn about and enjoy the unique cultural diversity that makes RIMPAC so
unique in the global family of international exercises.

With that, it’s my pleasure to introduce the RIMPAC Combined Task Force Commander, Vice
Admiral Nora Tyson.