We need an additional number of civil and foreign service employees to scale up the Indo-Pacific strategy, and to out-compete China.

I believe if we do that we will see its effectiveness in leveraging more private sector investment go up significantly.

We have a backlog, a very significant backlog that has built up.

We welcome Ukraine's EU candidacy and support the Ukrainian government's efforts to advance necessary institution-building in line with Ukraine's European path.

We have worked from day one to do two things, foundational things: One is to support important investments in ourselves.

Countries make their own sovereign decisions in their international relationships.

We are looking at other places in the Pacific Islands, where we can make sure that we are present in ways that we haven't been in recent years.

We can't do more with less. We must increase our investments in our diplomatic and development tools if we want to strengthen our national security.

The budget will help us push back on advancing authoritarianism and democratic backsliding by strengthening democracies around the world.

The post-Cold War world is over, and there is an intense competition underway to determine what comes next.

We have been, even since the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and ending the war, the largest single humanitarian contributor to Afghanistan.

We will produce that strategy. I think there is actually a deadline in the legislation of June.