Digital Press Briefing with Admiral Linda L. Fagan, Commandant, United States Coast Guard

MODERATOR:  Greetings from the U.S. Department of State’s Asia Pacific Media Hub.  I would like to welcome journalists to today’s on-the-record briefing with Admiral Linda L. Fagan, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.  Admiral Fagan will discuss how the Coast Guard’s unique missions and partnerships strengthen maritime governance, economic prosperity, and safety and security across the Indo-Pacific region.

With that, let’s get started.  Admiral Fagan, I’ll turn it over to you for your opening remarks.

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  All right, thank you.  Thank you very much, and welcome, all.  Appreciate you joining me here today.

I’m pleased to be in Australia to speak to you about the U.S. Coast Guard’s role in the Pacific.  The United States, Australia, and many Pacific countries have shared goals, and the Coast Guard works to strengthen relationships with partners throughout the region.

On this trip I’ve previously visited Samoa and New Zealand, where I met with officials who share the same perspective on free and open oceans and the importance of the rule of law.  Our oceans are global highways that facilitate commerce and provide food to millions of people.  Threats to maritime security do not respect borders, so it’s important that we work together with partners to solve shared challenges.

For example, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing threatens the health of our oceans and the well-being of coastal communities that rely on fishing for their livelihood and for their food security.  IUU fishing is often linked to other criminal activity, and the networks that benefit from it are regional or even global.  Our response must be the same.

The U.S. Coast Guard is happy to collaborate, and we have people assigned in Australia and throughout the region to coordinate our effort and help provide the training other maritime services identify as the most important to their missions.

I appreciate the participation and leadership of our Australian maritime partners in multilateral opportunities such as the Pacific Maritime Security Program and the Australian Border Force’s work supporting other Southeast Asian nations through law enforcement training courses.  The United States and Australia are also both members of the Quad maritime security group, another critical multilateral effort in the Pacific.  We look forward to continued collaboration with Australia and other likeminded nations throughout the Pacific.

Thank you each for your interest in our role in this region and your interest in the region, and I am looking forward to taking a few of your questions here today.  So thank you very much.

MODERATOR:  Thank you, Admiral.  We will now go to the question-and-answer portion.  The first question we’ll take from Gordon Arthur of the Naval News out of New Zealand.  “In the face of the largest coast guard in the world, the China Coast Guard, and one which is extremely aggressive, what difference can the U.S. Coast Guard make so far from home?  How can you assure allies and other nations who are being bullied by the CCG?”

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  So the United States Coast Guard – and as we operate around the world, and certainly have U.S. Coast Guard cutters in the Pacific, in Oceania – and we demonstrate what professional maritime behaviors and engagements are on the water.  We operate and navigate in accordance with international law in a way that’s professional and predictable.  And we always seek to model that behavior as we interact with any coast guard or navy or commercial vessels in the Pacific or, again, anywhere in the world.

And our commitment is to a free and open Indo-Pacific where safety, security, and prosperity are something that all mariners and all nations can enjoy, and the strength and power in unity and partnerships as we continue to demonstrate what professional behaviors are, certainly consistent with an international rules-based order, and mindful that each and every nation has – that their sovereignty needs to be respected.  And I think the U.S. Coast Guard does a particularly good job of operating in that space in a way that’s professional and relevant and useful to so many key partners and allies in the region.

MODERATOR:  The next question, we will pivot to Pearl Matibe, who submitted their question in advance from The Premium Times based in Washington, D.C., and Nigeria.  “How does the Coast Guard’s presence and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific impact maritime security and economic stability in Africa given the interconnected nature of global maritime trade, if at all?”

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  Yeah, and so the Indo-Pacific is home to half of the world’s population, two-thirds of the global economy, and we are all interconnected – more interconnected now than we have ever, ever been.  And certainly, when it comes to activities that diminish economic prosperity or diminish the rule of law, any activity that counters criminal networks and illegal activities, whether it’s in the Pacific or off the coast of Africa or anywhere else in the world, helps maintain that prosperity and stability truly globally.  And the oceans connect us.  The fish, for example, don’t recognize the boundaries that we as nations and governments have drawn.  The fish don’t know where those boundaries are, and as water temperatures change, they will continue to move and migrate.  And so creating networks that strengthen sovereignty, strengthen economic prosperity, counter illegal activity, counter the networks, the criminal networks who work to destabilize those agreed rule-of-law-type processes, in doing that in one part of the world benefits all of us in ways sometimes more direct than others.  But it takes a network to counter a criminal network, and so doing that work to counter illegal activity wherever it’s occurring is important and has an effect truly globally.

MODERATOR:  The next question will go to Ben Felton from Canberra, Australia, the Naval News and Australian Defence Magazine.  Ben, if you would like to pose your question, please unmute now.

QUESTION:  Thank you for taking the time, Admiral Fagan.  You were talking about visiting Samoa and New Zealand, and I guess the Coast Guard’s presence in Oceania or the Pacific.  What sort of comments and reflections are you getting from Pacific leaders about your presence in the region?  And do you think the Coast Guard is adequately resourced for the missions it’s undertaking there?  Thank you.

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  Yeah, thank you.  And I think a recurring theme on this trip and other trips that I’ve made into the region is interest and desire for more engagement and partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard.  And often that focus is on ships – our white ships with the red racing stripes – but I’ll point to right now as we are here, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane is en route to Vanuatu, where I’m hoping to see her here shortly.  But Harriet Lane and her change of home port to Honolulu speaks to how we as a United States Coast Guard are looking with regard to kind of where Coast Guard forces are and how do we create opportunity for more persistent engagement in the region.

And so while we often focus on the ships, we in a number of different countries as we engage with partners and allies create opportunity for training teams to come and teach everything from law enforcement fisheries boardings to outboard engine repair to pick a topic that helps a nation ensure their own national sovereignty as it pertains to their maritime and littorals and create capacity and capability, and I think the U.S. Coast Guard is particularly well suited for that kind of training and work, and it is – the demand signal is quite loud for it and we look forward to continuing those kinds of critical not just training but ship-deployment opportunities as well.

MODERATOR:  Okay, the next question will go to Simone McCarthy from CNN.  “How concerned is the U.S. Coast Guard over China’s increasing gray-zone tactics in the context of the SCS and around Taiwan?  Does the U.S. Coast Guard plan to respond?  Specifically, are there any joint USCG patrols planned with the Philippines?”

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  Yeah, so obviously the Coast Guard – and we’ve had ships operating in the region for the past several years.  The U.S. is a Pacific nation, and so the opportunity for ships, U.S. Coast Guard ships to operate throughout the Pacific has been something that we have done and continue to do.  And then as we – as ships are in the region, we look to partner with other key – just other coast guards in the region.  You specifically mentioned Philippines Coast Guard, and we did a joint patrol last fall.  Japan Coast Guard, Malaysia, Indonesia, just to name but a few of the key and very capable coast guards that are in the region that we work with.

And with regard to the specific question around gray-zone activity, again, the Coast Guard as we operate, it’s in accordance with the agreed international order, rule of law, the conducts and codes that govern how mariners and military vessels operate and conduct themselves at sea – again, in accordance with the international agreements.  And we will continue to operate and engage that way as a demonstration of sort of the importance of rule of law and ensuring that nations have capacity and capability to counter illegal activities or other encroachments of sovereignty.

MODERATOR:  The next question, we will go back to a – one that was submitted in advance from Christopher Woody, a freelancer in Bangkok, Thailand.  “Officials from the U.S. and likeminded countries have emphasized the importance of improving maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region.  What platforms and resources are the U.S. Coast Guard bringing to bear to help its partners better monitor their maritime spaces?”

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  Yeah, and so obviously the U.S. Coast Guard is not the – sort of the only or primary contributor in the space around maritime domain awareness, and so we work alongside and in support of many of the other issues or many of the other initiatives going on.  So, for example, Starboard, which is a New Zealand effort; under the Quad there’s SeaVision, HawkEye 360, right?  So a lot of work and alignment and synchronizing around the topic of maritime domain awareness, and the U.S. Coast Guard is aligned and supportive of those other multilateral regional efforts and investments, and we’ll look to continue to be supportive and sort of synchronized with those initiatives as they play forward.

MODERATOR:  The next question will go to Joyce Rocamora from the Philippine News Agency.  “Does the U.S. Coast Guard plan to play a significant role in enforcing the international law or promoting maritime governance over the South China Sea, especially the high seas falling under Beijing’s 10-dash line?”

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  No, so as U.S. ships and the Coast Guard ships patrol in the region, we will operate and navigate consistent with international law and norms and we’ll continue to demonstrate rule of law and those norms in all areas and in all aspects in alignment with international law.  And again, we’ll – we’re respectful of others’ sovereignties, and so I’ll use an example of some of the fisheries enforcement boardings that we do; they’re done under the – under, again, multilateral arrangements and agreements through some of the regional fisheries management organizations, all activity and all of that action consistent and aligned with the international order.

MODERATOR:  And we have another question that was submitted in advance, and this was from Nick Schifrin from the PBS NewsHour based in Washington, D.C.  “In the Taiwan Strait there have been increased incidents and tension between Beijing and Taipei.  Do you believe the Chinese Coast Guard has been acting appropriately?”

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  So in the Taiwan Strait – and certainly we have had several Coast Guard cutters transit the Taiwan Strait; the Taiwan Strait is an agreed, accepted international strait, and just as in the answer to the previous questions, right, we will operate and navigate our Coast Guard ships in – consistent with international laws and norms, and we’ll continue to operate consistent with all of the sort of codes of conduct as it pertains to ship engagements at sea: military ships, coast guard ships, fishing ships, commercial ships, or standards that go with operating vessels at sea.  And we will continue to behave in accordance with those laws and standards.

MODERATOR:  Okay.  Thank you, Admiral Fagan.  I think we will bring that to a close.  If you have any final remarks, I’ll turn it back over to you.

ADMIRAL FAGAN:  All right.  Hey, thank you, and thank you, everyone, for participating today.  It really is a privilege to be here in the Pacific representing the United States Coast Guard.  And as we – and I’ve had the opportunity over the last week or so to engage with so many key partners and entities and governments.  I’m really excited about the opportunity that exists for the United States Coast Guard in the region.  We, I think, are well situated for the kinds of work, training, awareness, engagement, partnership, capacity building – use whatever term may be most applicable – to help bolster and strengthen the network and fabric of so many likeminded countries who have a right to their sovereignty, protecting their own natural resources.  And we welcome the opportunity to continue to engage, and whether it’s a ship or training team or other key leader engagements, we just really enjoy the strength of the partnerships and the cultures here in the Pacific.  And again, thank everyone for their time here today.  So thank you.

MODERATOR:  And that brings us to the end of today’s briefing.  Thank you for your questions, and thank you to Admiral Fagan for joining us.  We will provide a transcript of this briefing to participating journalists as soon as it is available.  We’d also love to hear your feedback, and you can contact us at any time at AsiaPacMedia@state.gov.  Thanks again for your participation and we hope you can join us for another briefing soon.