Virtual Press Briefing with Captain Robert Reyes, Mission Commander of Pacific Partnership 2026, and Colonel Alain Lafrenière, Deputy Mission Commander of Pacific Partnership 2026

MODERATOR: Greetings from the U.S. Department of State's Asia Pacific Media Hub. It's my pleasure today to welcome journalists to this on-the-record briefing. We are honored to be joined by U.S. Navy Captain Robert Reyes, the Mission Commander, and Colonel Alain Lafrenière, the Deputy Mission Commander for Pacific Partnership 2026.

All right. With that, let's get started. I will turn it over to our two speakers for your opening remarks.

CAPTAIN REYES: Good afternoon, and thank you, Ms. Lee, for those kind introductory remarks. And for all the - for all the news outlets and journalists that are represented today, thank you again for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us.

It is my great privilege to return to Pacific Partnership as its mission commander for the 2026 iteration. I was previously part of the Pacific Partnership 2025 mission as an officer in charge of the Philippines mission stop. Again, so this kind of represents for me a full-circle moment, now coming back as - as the mission commander.

And I would like to also introduce Colonel Alain Lafrenière, who is the first Canadian Armed Forces Deputy Mission Commander of Pacific Partnership. So we're pretty excited on that front to have him here.

So before we start, I want to make sure that everybody has a good sense of what Pacific Partnership is. So Pacific Partnership is the U.S. Navy's largest annual maritime humanitarian and civic assistance mission that we conduct in the Indo-Pacific. The genesis of this mission stems from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the subsequent response that the international community conducted because of that disaster.

What we learned from that - from that unfortunate calamity is that we can ill afford, as a region, to respond unilaterally and not in cooperation with regional partners. So what we did in 2006, we created this mission called Pacific Partnership, and that mission is designed to establish and nurture regional relationships, enhance regional cooperation, for the sole purpose of disaster preparedness and disaster resilience in this region.

Right now, we're looking at Pacific Partnership in its 20th anniversary year. What we bring to the table this year is a cumulative number of 300 mission personnel over - that will be participating in seven mission stops for over a period of five months. So we will be going to Vietnam, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Malaysia, and the Philippines, with enduring efforts in Fiji and Palau. Each country's participants - in which case there'll be over 10 allied and partner nations that will be along with us with their personnel and their assets, which collectively we provide a range of knowledge and expertise that increases our collective capacity to ensure that we transfer those necessary skills for disaster preparedness and resilience.

I'd like to take this opportunity also to say that I admire the continuous efforts of all the parties that - to prepare for and execute this critical mission. And - and again, thank you to everyone in attendance, and I look forward to answering your questions. With that said, I'm going to turn it over to my deputy, Colonel Lafrenière.

COLONEL LAFRENIÈRE: Good afternoon, everyone. Colonel Alain Lafrenière, Canadian Armed Forces. I'd like to say it's a great honor to be working alongside with the U.S. military personnel here, and looking forward to work with all our partner nations and host nations through the process.

It really is an incredible opportunity to participate in Pacific Partnership in a way to create new relations and to create new avenues of cooperation that are very important in a very important portion of the work - of the world. So really looking forward to working with our host nation, partner nations for the next few months, and thanks, everyone, for your time today.

MODERATOR: Thank you both. We will now turn to the question-and-answer portion of today's briefing.

We received a pre-submitted question from Danh Le, VnExpress from Vietnam, and I will go ahead and read their question, as I do not see them online yet. And the question is: "The mission activities in Vietnam will take place in Quang - Quang Tri province from June 20th to July 6th, according to the U.S. Navy. Can you highlight the significance and longstanding partnership of Vietnam in the program - what it means for regional security?"

CAPTAIN REYES: Thanks for that question. So to answer that question, I want to kind of go into our longstanding relationship with Vietnam. In our 20-year history, we have conducted this - the Pacific Partnership mission numerous times in Vietnam during that time span, underscoring the depth of the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral relationship and increase in cooperation into matters such as disaster response, public health, and community resilience.

The Pacific Partnership mission is a disaster preparedness mission at its core. And in Quang Tri province that we are going to execute this mission this year, we aim to enhance regional security by improving Vietnam's ability to respond quickly to natural disasters, and then subsequently reducing the humanitarian - reducing the potential for a humanitarian crisis and strengthening collective capacity by fostering cooperation amongst all that are involved.

MODERATOR: Great, thank you. Our next question goes to Nikson Sinaga from Kompas Daily, Indonesia. Nikson, I am going to allow you to unmute yourself. Please go ahead with your question.

QUESTION: Hello, sir, I'm Nikson from Indonesia. Hello.

MODERATOR: Thanks. Thanks, Nikson. We can hear you loud and clear. Please go ahead.

CAPTAIN REYES: Hi, Nikson.

QUESTION: Okay, I - okay. I want to ask about this partnership. Maybe you know that the Indonesia have disaster in 2025, about Sumatra disaster. What is the partnership of this mission to Indonesia in these years about how disaster is - to face disaster Indonesia? Thank you.

CAPTIAN REYES: Thank you, Nikson, for that question. So first off, I just want to address and commend Indonesia for its self-sufficiency and its own preparedness and resilience and to responding to your own natural disasters, in which case in Sibolga and in Sumatra, it was very heavy floods and landslides that affected the area, in which case most of the response was handled internally, which is the aims of Pacific Partnership.

We don't - our - if we're doing our job right, the skills and techniques that we provide in terms - with regard to subject matter expert exchanges delve into specific - specific areas such as patient evacuation training, flood preparedness, and response. And then we usually conduct a field training exercise to exercise those skills that we just taught the first responders in each of the host nations - in this case, Indonesia.

For this year, we look forward to learning from and sharing the expertise that your first responders have gone through, and most recently with those floods, and then - and then looking forward to providing valuable insights to the rest of the stakeholders that we bring in order to make sure that we enhance your collective capacity and capability to respond to disasters in the future. Thank you.

MODERATOR: Great, thank you. I saw that Samantha Beltran had your hand up. Samantha, please unmute yourself and please pose your question live.

QUESTION: Okay, hi, good afternoon. So I'm Sam Beltran. I'm from the South China Morning Post; I'm from the Asia desk. So my question is about - so several of the stops include ASEAN or Southeast Asian countries. So what goes into the selection of the stops in this year's Pacific Partnership mission? And what does this indicate about the region's importance to the United (inaudible) with disaster relief missions? Thank you.

CAPTIAN REYES: Thank you, Ms. Beltran. First, in order to answer that question, I just want to kind of go into some background with regard to how those countries get selected. So we always take into account the host nation - the host nation in general. So everything that we do is by, with, and through the host nation. So we don't come into a country without being formally invited, and we don't do anything that we - that the host nation does not desire.

In this case, I'm glad that you brought up the focus of the location for this year being primarily ASEAN nations, Southeast Asia. Due to the vast distance of the Indo-Pacific region, which is the largest region, I believe, in the world, we are - frankly, we cannot get to every single country every year. So we - what we have done for the most part over the past decade or so, we've split our focus from a Southeast Asia-focused on an even year and on an odd year we focused more on Oceania.

But there are some overlap that we do have based on enduring efforts. But that's primarily how we split up and how we answer the demand signal from all the regional countries that are, frankly, super excited to have Pacific Partnership in their backyard. So that's the main reason or the main impetus of how we choose our countries.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Captain Reyes. We are going to move on to the next question, which also comes from our friend in the Philippines, Alexandria Denisse Carlos from - Ria Carlos, TV5. I will allow you to unmute yourself, so please go ahead, Alexandria.

QUESTION: Okay, hello. I hope I'm audible. Again, I'm Ria from TV5 in the Philippines. And my question is that the Philippines has been recorded to have the strongest earthquake this year globally, with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake; also with the highest number of deaths due to an earthquake this year. And also, two of the countries you're also going to visit, Indonesia and Malaysia, are included in the top 10 countries with the strongest earthquakes globally this year. So how can the Pacific Partnership help these three countries?

CAPTAIN REYES: Thank you for that question. So preparing for natural disasters, to include earthquakes and any other subsequent secondary disasters such as landslides, is within our skill set. So a lot of the activities that we do revolve around specific disasters that are more likely to happen in that country with - and you mentioned the earthquakes in the Philippines, Indonesia, et cetera. A lot of our subject matter expert exchanges are focused on urban - are disaster scenarios to respond to earthquakes, and we have subsequent field training exercises that do urban search and rescue with practical hands-on skills transfers for your first responders and for the military that act as first responders to support any type of response in that country.

Deputy, do you have anything?

COLONEL LAFRENIÈRE: And one thing, I mean, we find in responding to natural disasters is it's very difficult. It comes with a lot of challenge, which makes it even more difficult to collaborate when it happens. So the idea here is that we do some preparedness exercise, we learn how to cooperate together, we learn how to create the relationship that we need so if we have to respond in an emergency, we're much better prepared to do it as international partners.

MODERATOR: Excellent. Thank you for that answer. I will go next to a pre-submitted question, and I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name - Kompathit Kongsaksrisakul from The Standard, Thailand. And the question is: "Many Southeast Asian countries prefer to avoid choosing sides amid - choosing sides amid great-power competition. How can initiatives like Pacific Partnership support ASEAN's goal of maintaining strategic autonomy while still deepening cooperation with the United States?"

CAPTAIN REYES: Okay. Thank you for the question. Pacific Partnership, again, like I said, in its core is to enhance disaster preparedness and resiliency within the countries in this region. So in terms of our activities, they revolve around those operations. And we conduct the mission under four lines of effort, which is medical, engineering, host-nation outreach, and disaster management, with disaster management underpinning all the rest of those lines of efforts.

So that's where our concentration is, and while we do those activities, the added benefit is the collaboration and cooperation with host nations and other regional countries, which align with many of ASEAN's objectives.

MODERATOR: Thank you. I see Jake Wise from The Fiji Times in Fiji is online, and Jake, I know you submitted your question in advance, but I will just give you the mic and allow you to pose your question live since you're online. Please go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello, Captain Robert. Thank you so much for this opportunity, for this interview. I had - yes, I had a pre-submitted question. But just around the U.S. Navy's operations here in the Pacific, I understand that you're strengthening collaboration with the Fijian Government, or rather the Fiji navy, around combating illicit activities on our oceans. I was wondering what that would look like now with these joint operations.

CAPTAIN REYES: Thanks for that question, Jake. Well, what I can speak to - because there are many, many efforts by the U.S. government in Fiji, but what I can speak to is Pacific Partnership. And in Fiji, we remain focused on providing those critical humanitarian assistance, disaster preparedness skillsets and transfers to your first responders and to your government officials, which at the end of the day it strengthens partnership across the Indo-Pacific and primarily within Fiji.

While other challenges can affect our regional security, like I said before, those issues are addressed by other programs and other efforts within the U.S. Government, and they're not really in my lane of expertise, so I will leave that at that.

However, with Pacific Partnership, our enduring efforts in Fiji, such as the Nabua school village house project that is currently ongoing, we will continue to be a consistent and reliable partner for Fiji, and we look forward to conducting Pacific Partnership in the years to come.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Captain Reyes. I do have a pre-submitted question from an anonymous participant. I will read it aloud: "What are some of the biggest challenges the mission has faced so far, whether logistical, cultural, or operational, in delivering humanitarian support across such a wide and diverse region?"

CAPTAIN REYES: Thanks for that question. Again, Pacific Partnership - this is a mission that is so dynamic and it's an exercise in flexibility and in agility, and it poses unique challenges every year. Yes, there is always a logistic challenge, transportation, in executing our operations, but at the end of the day, the emphasis and the center of gravity of our mission will always be the people we bring. Just as long as we bring the experts and the staff to the host nations that we are going to for any given year, Pacific Partnership will always be a success.

COLONEL LAFRENIÈRE: And also, the learning that comes from those challenges, be it logistics or anything, are part of the objective of learning to cooperate better in the region and to forge those relationships that are required so that we can respond together, if need be, during disaster relief or any kind of disaster response.

MODERATOR: Great. Thank you. I don't see any questions - any other questions in the Q&A box. I will give it a minute for you all to think of questions, additional questions. Otherwise, we will turn it back to the speakers for some final closing remarks. Let's just give it - oh, I see one more question from Jake.

Jake, if you don't mind, I will just read it out loud: "Pacific Partnership is traditionally framed as a humanitarian mission, but many Pacific countries are now facing overlapping crises involving drugs, organized crime, public health, and border security issues. Has the definition of regional security changed for missions like this?"

CAPTAIN REYES: I don't necessarily think that the definitions have changed, but there are different subsets of regional security, and Pacific Partnership addresses just one of many focus areas for regional security. Our main purpose is for humanitarian assistance and disaster response and disaster preparedness, so that's where Pacific Partnership - and as its mission commander, that's where we're focusing our efforts for this year. Other U.S. government programs address the other portions of regional security, so they - I am not in the best position to answer those questions.

MODERATOR: All right. We have another question from Risa from Kompas TV in Indonesia. Risa, please unmute yourself and go ahead.

QUESTION: Hello. Can you hear me?

MODERATOR: Yes, we can hear you loud and clear.

QUESTION: Okay. Okay. Hello. I am Risa from Kompas TV, Medan, Indonesia. Mr. Robert, as mentioned earlier by my colleague Nikson from Kompas, last year, several area in Sumatra experienced severe floodings. While much attention was focused on the physical damage done by disaster, many children were always left dealing with physical-psychologic trauma in - after that. Does Pacific Partnership include mental health and physical-social support as part of this humanitarian program in Indonesia? And if your team identity children or community members who required more intensive or long-term care, is there a follow-up? Okay, thank you.

CAPTAIN REYES: Thank you. Unfortunately, your connection is not as strong on our end. Is it possible to repeat the question or maybe type it in so that we can - I can address your question properly?

MODERATOR: Yes. Captain Reyes, I have the question here in the Q&A box, so I can go ahead and read that for you. So again, this is Risa from Kompas TV, Medan, Indonesia. "As mentioned earlier by my colleague Nikson from Kompas, last year, several areas in Sumatra experienced severe flooding. While much attention was focused on the physical damage caused by the disaster, many children were also left dealing with psychological trauma in its aftermath. Does the Pacific Partnership mission include mental health and psycho-social support as part of its humanitarian programs in Indonesia? And if your team identifies children or community members who require more intensive or long-term care, is there a follow-up mechanism or partnership with local institutions to ensure they continue receiving the support that they need after the mission concludes?"

CAPTAIN REYES: All right, thank you, and now I understand the full breadth of the question. So with regard to mental health, the answer for Pacific Partnership is yes. So within our medical line of effort and our host-nation outreach, which includes our chaplaincy, religious - religion engagements branch, we do address mental health and the PTSD with regard to natural disasters is definitely a focus area of ours. And we work with local and regional organizations to help provide the - that much-needed support from a mental health perspective, which at the end of the day, it actually lends itself to a better model for us. Because after we leave, those regional and local organizations are able to continue on the work that we've established together so that there's an enduring capability and capacity to address those long-term concerns.

MODERATOR: Thank you, sir, for that answer. We have time for one more question, and I will go back to Samantha Beltran as there is a question in the Q&A box. Sam, I will allow you to talk, so please go ahead with your question.

QUESTION: Okay, thank you so much. So it's Sam Beltran again from the South China Morning Post's Asia desk. So with the closure of USAID last year, how does the Pacific Partnership indicate how the U.S. sees its role in helping with disaster preparedness or relief and humanitarian missions in this region? Thank you.

CAPTAIN REYES: Thanks, Ms. Beltran, for that question. And with regard to USAID, most of those - that area is outside of my breadth of expertise. However, I do know that the U.S. State Department is - collectively absorbed USAID's duties and responsibilities. Primarily what I can speak to is Pacific Partnership and the U.S. Navy's efforts in this region. So obviously we - the U.S. military has been a part of other responses throughout the years. However, they were - always been through - by, with, and through the host nation and vetted through our interagency in our government. So with that said, we will always defer to our State Department for any potential assistance that we may have to render in the region due to natural disasters.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Captain Reyes. And now, that is unfortunately all the time we have for the Q&A, and I will turn it back to our speakers for any final closing remarks.

COLONEL LAFRENIÈRE: So born in - at 2004 in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami, Pacific Partnership is now at 20 years strong and remains true to its core idea of humanitarian assistance, disaster preparedness, and strengthening the partnership across the Indo-Pacific region. Over the next few months, we will work together with several host nations as well as several allies and partner in the region to make sure that we're - everybody is in a much better position to respond should - and when the need comes to respond to any natural disasters.

CAPTAIN REYES: Thank you, Colonel, and thank you, Ms. Lee and the rest of the journalists in attendance today, for all your questions and your attention.

I'd like to close with re-emphasizing that Pacific Partnership is an enduring mission that we conduct here in the Indo-Pacific region and ensures that when disaster strikes, that we as a collective and likeminded group are ready to respond. Natural disasters, like everyone here is probably familiar with, is not confined by borders, and they impact everyone and does not see race, does not see religion, does not see gender. People - they see people. People are affected equally by any type of natural disasters, which is critical for - and which is why Pacific Partnership is critical in order to ensure the preparedness and resiliency of the region. It's a multinational effort, and in which case we foster new, enduring relationships in order to get after those guiding principles.

I'm often reminded that one of the biggest aims is that we prepare in calm to respond in crisis. Right now we are able to give and transfer much-needed skills to host nations in order to improve and enhance their capability and capacity to respond to their own crises so that they do not - our aim is that they are able to do it on their own, but again, letting them know that they're not alone and that they can always rely on help with our regional allies and partners.

Again, thank you very much, everyone, for attending, and I appreciate the time that you gave.

MODERATOR: All right. Well, thank you to our speakers, and thank you to all for joining us in today's briefing. We will - we will be providing a transcript of this briefing to all participating journalists as soon as it is available, and if you have any feedback or further questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]. Thanks again for your participation and we hope you can join us for another briefing very soon. Have a good day.

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