And strategic thinking, all of what he is up to around the world, including the rebalance to the asia pacific and other topics of interest and after that well have a bit of a conversation up here before going to you. I just wanted to say a couple of words of appreciation and biography about admiral greenert. He is a native of pennsylvania. I believe quarterback country as they say so maybe we should get you into the mix on saving the redskins as well as all the other things you are doing around the world. 1975 graduate of annapolis. A submariner by profession. Has commanded attack submarines and Ballistic Missile submarines. Commander of the u. S. 7th fleet and various other jobs. Major part of the planning and nh shop of the navy, as well prior to his current position as the chief of naval operations. Hes been in that position now about three years. Which makes him part of a remarkable class of joint chiefs who came into office in that year. Admiral greenert is joined by general oddnorio and general dempsey and i would like to begin the speculation or the recommendation process i hope he may be considered for another fourstar job when general dempsey steps down next year but i dont mean to do the admiral a disservice interjecting that too much in todays conversation. I would like to say in the three years hes been at the helm of the navy he has been soernted with a number of major initiatives including, of course, the socalled rebalance to the asia pacific and the rethinking of Airsea Battle, a topic im sure will come up today. Without further adieu, please join me in welcoming general greenert to brookings. Thank you, michael. Thank you very much. Youre very kind. I was in pennsylvania yesterday. We were talking about i visited a high school and i wt s called moon township. We were talking to the High School Students about pretty much what were going to talk about today and their interest and their indepth knowledge of World Affairs totally stunned me. I was taken back by it. I figured theyd want to talk about local stuff or this or that or why the navy and this business. Boom, they were way out there and they said how do we get information beyond just the headlines . We would like to understand our world today. We talked a little bit about, of course, our world today is not going to be their world as we have seen that remarkable evolution. They had a partner online that we were vtcg with in taiwan, a partner high school, and so we got worldwide very quickly and we had a q a session. They were very remarkably involved. It is an amazing world as we get out there, how connected we are. Id like to talk briefly about our Maritime Strategy and why we are redoing that. The rebalance as michael said that were how were moving on in that and our relations with in this case the chinese navy. It is kind of an update on things. We have had the International Sea power symposium about six weeks ago and continuing the evolution as directed by the president and in accordance with the rebalance to the asia pacific. But our Maritime Strategy, i hope and expect by the end of this calendar year well be publishing this. A relatively new command ant of the marine corps and i need to give them time to digest what we have put together and make sure that were in sync because its a sea services document. Navy, marine corps and coast guard. The compelling reasons for the revision and it pretty much is a revision, is obviously the security and fiscal changes since 2007. They have been extraordinary. The indian ocean, asia region, the changes, the antiaccess area denial and the need for access, energy, the challenge for energy and the need for energy. Antiterrorism, maritime disputes. All of these have dramatically evolved since 2007. We have a new strategy since then. The defense strategic guidance of 2012. A qdr and Homeland Security where the coast guard resides has had a Homeland Security review. So all of these really compel us and dictate a change to our strategy. Our principles will be the same. The value of presence to be where it matters when it matters as a sea service. The three of us. And how we fit into that. And value of Maritime Networks as the leverage and the strength that you get out of Maritime Networks will come out in that. Well address power projection, sea control, Maritime Security and the importance of access. But, you know, if you could put up the graphic here, the slide, if you wonder the evolving world compare this to 2007 and i ask you, theres only a few photos up here youd say, yeah, yeah, i remember that, same situation in 2007. Its different. You know . 2007 the mortgage bubble way beyond that. We had a surge going on in iraq. And the evolving war fighting challenges since then and cyber, electronic warfare, electronic attack. The electromagnetic spectrum, if you will. Weapons of mass destruction. And, of course, the case of syria, chemical weapons that evolved since then and counterterrorism. So again, our objective is by the end of the year well complete and have this thing published. So a little bit on the asia pacific rebalance. Some folks say, well, is that thing really going to happen . I mean, you still going to do that . I say, yes. Despite current events, the longrange interests of your navy and really of your security posture, the defense of defense is in the asia pacific. To review, over 50 of the worlds shipping ton knowledge pass through the straights of malka and lumbar in the indonesia area in southeast asia. A third of the Global Crude Oil and half of the liquid natural gas moves through the South China Sea. Five of the top 15 trading partners in the region, asia pacif pacific. Five of the seven treaties, security treaties are in the region. We have been engaged over 70 years in the Asia Pacific Region and with presence, with significant presence in that area. We will continue with this rebalance. And that rebalance means to refresh for us four properly postured forward forces and we are on track with destroyers, to japan, Forward Deployed naval force, literal combat ships to singapore, a new attack excuse me, a submarine to guam, the triton which is the surveillance to deploy that out of the guam and okinawa, our p8a, were now in the third deployment out there. That will continue to evolve. Most of you saw yesterday the landing on the nimitz of the f35c. The joint Strike Fighter so as that is bringing that in, evolves, we will forward deploy that first to the western pacific. Its forces, its capables, advanced capabilities in the pacific area of responsibility is the benchmark and retains that. But its also understanding and that means you can call it intellectual capacity. You can call it increased engagement with allies, partners and potential partners such as china and india. Rebalance is not single dimensional. It is not just about china but it is china certain is one part of it and a very important part of it. China and our country are the Worlds Largest economies and we are frankly intertwined. You know that. Number two trading partner. The number three export market and our number one import source is china. The mutual prosperity of both of us is in our collective best interest. Our president s met in sunny lands and recognized and told us we have to get the relationship right and we are continuing on that track. In the navy, it was about finding out and working out what are the differences and how do we increase cooperation . We acknowledge that growing influence in size of the chinese navy. But we agree and we consist that we have a consistent application of the International Laws and norms, that we act responsibly both locally and globally, and that involves queue and many of you are familiar with and rules of Behavior Working Group in progress, meeting periodically about monthly now. These are folks made up of our defense and then ministry of defense in china and of course the naval officers and their naval officers working on rules of behavior in a working group. And contribute to the International Order and security. In other words, to be a leader. And we talked about that. We would be admiral woo shan lee and myself with miss party and my group an we talked about it with the heads of navy. Do we continue the useful dialogue that we need to make sure we have a governance on the high seas . So both our president s directed the strengthening of military ties and to build the understanding and as president obama said, we should institutionalize and regularize our discussions that take place. The navies are well suited to the task. We are frequently encountering each other in an international domain, the high seas. We encounter each others routinely out there on the global commons. And in a vast area we are often called together to cooperate on areas of shared challenge. Humanitarian, disaster relief, typhoons, tsunamis, ring of fire in the Asia Pacific Region, Counter Piracy all around the world. Youre familiar with that. Wasnt that long ago we met to search for flight 370. So a little update on our relationship, how are things coming together . Well, were working from the top down. Thats myself and admiral wu shan lee and the bottom up to set up and encourage the folks to get together at the mid grade level and senior officer but to start from the top ive met with admiral wu five times in the last year and were working on counter part viz its here in 2015. Well put our input ill provide my input to the folks down in the policy and the office of the secretary of defense and ill talk about little bit more on the junior interactions in a minute but the fact is with this rising navy in china, we have in my view opportunity. The challenges to get rid of needless, unfounded, unprofessional cases in this interaction were ultimately and inevitably going to have at sea. Unsafe operations. Youre familiar with many of them, both at sea and in recently in our sensitive reconnaissance operation intercepts. We have had nothing recent. No unsafe or untoward incidents since august when we had this last sor intercept that we have viewed as unsafe and we talked about that. Admiral wu and i talked about this at length and where we might go ahead when we met six weeks ago in newport. So theres a concern for both, for myself, admiral wu and all the heads of navy what we go to sea, when we meet at sea, we have glover nans with proper protocols and decrease the potential for miscall collusion. History is full of cases of miscalculation causing nations to put them in a situation they dont want to be in and leaving no recourse. We have to clear standards of behavior for clear and consistent operations in International Waters and in International Air space. And again, this was embraced by all the heads of navy and the International Sea power symposium not long ago. We started down this road in a i think a pretty robust manner back in april of this year at the western Pacific Naval symposium getting together voluntarily 22 navies embraced for professional behavior and clear communications. Wercis at rim pac with 25 navies there, 42 ships and we worked on that at rim pac. A lot of different nations and navies but this will be a long, deliberate process bringing deliberate attention. In some cases for some navies, its very different to have an engagement, to be open and to be conversing out there at sea. In the july counterpart visit i had where i went to china at the invitation of admiral wu, i visited the state oceanic administration, analogous to our department of Homeland Security where we talked thats where their coast guard if you will is located of the and we talked about introducing the queis option or protocol to the coast guard and it was absorbed, it was taken in as something that was viable, our coast guard is interested and making that connection now to continue to expand queis. In newport we discussed expansion across the globe with all of the nations and pretty much embraced by all of the coast guards and navies around the world as something that has value, maybe not in the current, precise format but the concept of a code, a known protocol at sea was embraced globally. The conversation doesnt stop. We need to sustain dialogue and we had our sea power symposium as i mentioned over and over again here six weeks ago. These will continue. We have the next larger one in singapore next may and well continue the discussion on both cyber at sea and the impact there and, of course, how do we continue to expand queis and go beyond that . We agreed to continue on. We kind of synchronized on the six initiatives we started actually almost 15 months ago whenever he was here in the United States. And they are to continue fleets training in and the promotion of queis. We both agree its a good initiative. To increase port visits and ill bring next again to my boss next years proposals later this month for next year, ill bring those proposals for port viz its. We agreed to establish regular service chief communications and the means to do that. We agreed to increase our academic exchanges both at the Naval War College and our naval academies. And those are in progress and admiral wu brought Prospective Commanding officers to newport going into 0 our Prospective Commanding officer course, talking to the teachers. Admiral wu attended and synchronized that. Theyre coming over here to the United States. Were working through the visas and bringing that up. Some will come over and continue that exchange. We agreed to put together a working group for Human Resources as hes moving to build his navy of the future and we are building our navy of the future to go over the challenges. And then lastly, to work on preapproved exercises. My Pacific Fleet commander is working with his requisite counterpart to find out how do we put modules together so when we meet at sea and we have that opportunity doing, whether were doing Counter Piracy operations, down in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, how can we do exercises, simple exercises that we can get preapproved . It is about Building Confidence and understanding throughout the ranks to continue on that road. So let me close now and then well get into your questions and questions and michael will have a conversation. Were committed to the security of the asia pacific. The alliances are strong. And well honor our treaties. The engagement is increasing both bilaterally and multilaterally and its really part of that rebalance. But relationships that i spoke to both with the peoples republic of china, their navy and india becoming an increasing opportunity will not be at the expense of our allies. It is not zero sum. International norms and standards are will benefit the region and we need to continue on that way ahead. So thanks a lot and i look forward to your questions. Thank you, admiral, for those great remarks and for what youre doing operationally and planning the future navy and working with allies and with the chinese. I wanted to begin with the ch a chinese navy and ask you to give us an assessment, an update on their quality. I recall admiral willard running Pacific Command a few years ago made a statement, a very pi think statement, everything we thought the xhi need would do are doing better and faster than we thought and the flip side of everything you terms in building engagement, how do you assess their quality at this juncture . I put it in two categories, maybe. One, the three dimensional, the construction, the technology and all that, i think admiral willard has it about right. I would call it a pace of what we would consider in the Weapon Development architecture if you will. And the building theyre in. I would say what we find in rim pac, they have operated in among themselves but not internationally so i think they have a pretty good learning curve to take on. We saw it in rim pac. They started out sort of rudimentary exercises. Had some problems, maybe here and there. Not unexpected for somebody entering into a multilateral engagement. But they ramped up reasonably well. So they have we have a its kind of like almost olympic grading scheme on the exercises. How do we do the gun shoot, this and that . Some said they were average to high average. I said, well, okay. I dont know what judges decided that. But i would say theyre coming along well, especially their interest in humanitarian assistance disaster relief. And to take on the responsible role that a growing navy would take on. Are you overly concerned about the pace of which theyre Getting Better . The last thing you said, obviously, seems, you know, fairly apple pie, helping more with humanitarian operations and so forth, but of course, i know that our navies have sometimes come into close proximity. There have been some dangerous encounters. Theyre not entirely comfortable with our presence in the western pacific and theres thinking they want to push us back. Are you particularly worried about that . Secondly, do we need some new rules of the road for how the navies interact, some of the Safety Measures and hotline measures the u. S. And soviets had in the cold war would be well served by introducing some more of those into the relationship. I think it would be of great interest. We have started a dialogue. It is relatively routine right now. Peri