"Japan's remarkable commitment to dramatically increase its defense spending to historic levels is both welcome and critical to our Alliance."
"No country can shape in a positive way the future of the region in isolation."
"The stakes are too high to embark on any other course."
"the United States intends to still be the indispensable global partner with this network of alliances, this lattice of security arrangements we have."
"They lack confidence that we will be the trusted and reliable security partner they have counted on us to be for decades."
"Our biggest weakness is our political division, is our inability to show that confidence, that bipartisan strength."
"I think sometimes those of us on this side of the dais understand some realities, but we do not explain them that well."
"I think the U.S. strategy has been to just push that back a day at a time, a year at a time."
"This has to be probably one of the most careful analyses done every day in the Pentagon and elsewhere in our security establishment."
"There is no economic or security issue that can be resolved in Northeast Asia without the active participation and cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo."
"We should be less concerned about provoking China than we should be concerned about bolstering our friends, allies, and partners in the region."
"It is frustrating to us that we have not been able to be more effective in communicating to our constituents the urgency of these issues."