A day in the diplomatic life of America’s defense secretary

VIENTIANE, Laos—From his first memo on the job, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has centered the tending and extending of ties with America’s allies and military partners. One busy day—Wednesday, Nov. 20—offers a lens on the breadth and intricacy of his efforts.

Austin had flown into this southeast Asian capital—part of a nine-day, four-country trip to the Asia-Pacific region—for the annual ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus, which this year gathered 19 regional defense leaders and their considerable staffs. He has attended the event in each of his four years as secretary, seizing the chance for face-to-face meeting with counterparts in a region central to U.S. defense strategy. 

“People don’t realize how much of the job of secretary of defense, particularly of this secretary of defense, is diplomatic,” said one U.S. official who accompanied Austin on the trip.

On Nov. 20, Austin arrived at the temple-roofed Lao National Conference Center for a series of meetings. Leading off: Austin’s first in-person discussion with New Zealand Defense Minister Judith Collins, whose 13-month-old government is upping its regional-security contributions—for example, sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait for the first time since 2017. The defense chiefs discussed “next steps for New Zealand’s updated strategic documents and framework, and areas for expanded cooperation in the Pacific Islands region.”

Next up: a meeting with Cambodia’s defense minister, part of a wider U.S. effort to woo Phnom Penh from China’s ambit. The chiefs settled plans for a December visit by Adm. Samuel Paparo, who leads U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and discussed trust-building projects such as military training, disaster assistance, and de-mining. 

Austin then met his Laotian counterpart, emerging with joint vows to accelerate work to clear the country of unexploded ordnance—much of it dropped by U.S. aircraft during the nine-year Secret War—and continued support for efforts to bring home U.S. troops’ remains.

And in the day’s final “bilat,” Austin talked with Singapore’s defense minister about getting the city-state’s military more involved in multilateral efforts. 

This was a running theme of his trip: using American relationships to foster broader connections among friendly nations. A few days earlier, he had stopped in northern Australia to seal a deal to, among other things, bring Japanese forces into a long-running exercise of U.S. Marines and Australian troops.

It’s also a running theme of Austin’s diplomatic efforts. In June, he laid it out in a speech to the Shangri-La conference in Singapore. 

“You know, in the past, our experts would talk about a ‘hub-and-spokes’ model for Indo-Pacific security,” he said. “Today we're seeing something quite different. This new convergence is not a single alliance or coalition, but instead something unique to the Indo-Pacific—a set of overlapping and complementary initiatives and institutions, propelled by a shared vision and a shared sense of mutual obligation.”

In Laos on Nov. 20, Austin made this vision explicit. Having met individually with several of ASEAN military leaders throughout the day, he issued a late-afternoon message for all of them: “U.S. Department of Defense Vision Statement for a Prosperous and Secure Southeast Asia,” a 1,200-word declaration of support for a region “free of coercion where safety, security, sovereignty, self-determination, and prosperity are shepherded by ASEAN centrality.” 

The document outlines “key lines of effort”—mostly tactical things like exercises, training, and improving domain awareness. “We really want to be able to operate with our partners more effectively and in more robust ways together,” said one senior defense official. 

But the ultimate goal is strategic. It’s no small thing to “get a region’s countries on board with a shared vision of shared values and shared purpose,” as another put it.

Austin’s preparation

Few U.S. defense secretaries can claim Austin’s combination of battlefield leadership and diplomatic experience. He has commanded troops in combat as a one-, two-, three-, and four-star general—the latter as commander of U.S. Central Command, where he managed military relationships and wartime coalitions across a 21-country area of responsibility.

Soon after President Biden appointed Austin in 2021, the new secretary issued a memo declaring that building and maintaining ties with allies and partners would be one of nine main thrusts of his tenure. Several months later, Austin was in Singapore, delivering a Fullerton Lecture entitled “The Imperative of Partnership.”

An immediate challenge was Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who had for five years sought to shift his country’s security policy toward China and Russia. In July 2021, Austin sealed the U.S. ally’s return to the fold at a meeting with Duterte in Manila.

Not a year later, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Austin helped rally international support for the besieged country, convening the Ukraine Defense Contact Group to coordinate military aid.

Austin has been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s efforts to manage international crises such as the Israel-Gaza war, Iran and Israel’s exchange of air strikes, China’s increasing aggressiveness, and more.

Austin, in fact, had invited his Chinese counterpart to meet at the ASEAN event here, part of a long-running effort to bolster military-to-military ties. But on the eve of the conference, Chinese officials declined, citing a recent sale of arms to Taiwan.

“The PRC’s decision is a setback for the whole region,” Austin told reporters later. “As I’ve said consistently, the right time to meet is any time.” 

‘The role we would expect’

As Austin flew from country to country aboard the modified 747 that serves as a traveling command post, his staff kept him informed as the White House approved a loosening of limits on Ukraine’s employment of ATACMS missiles, Kyiv fired them at targets inside Russia, and Moscow retaliated with a ballistic missile strike near Dnipro.

The continued flow of events underscored the substantial investment Austin makes in partner outreach.

“It takes time, and that can be the most valuable resource that leader has to spend,” one staffer said.

At a late-afternoon press conference on Nov. 20, Austin was asked what the trip—his twelfth to the region—means to him. 

“It means a lot,” he said. “You know, when we came on board, we designed a national defense strategy that placed the PRC as a pacing challenge. And despite all the things that we've been supporting around the globe, we've remained focused on that pacing challenge. We've strengthened our relationships with our allies and partners. We've helped them increase their capacity to be able to protect their own interests.”

“We have not come to this region ever, on my watch, just to come. We've always done something to increase our capability, our access.” 

He expressed optimism that the progress would stick even as a new administration takes over.

“I think we've put some things in place that will be lasting no matter what happens,” he said. “We've done amazing things like, you know, initiated the AUKUS project, which will add a generational capability, and in my view will contribute to greater stability and security throughout the region.

”We see things like Japan drastically increasing its investment in its own defense capabilities, investing in long-range strike, wanting to co-produce munitions with us. You see ROK [South Korea] and Japan working together, unlike they've done before.

“We're seeing things that we've not seen before, and it's because of the influence and the hard work of the United States of America.”

A few days earlier, his Australian counterpart credited Austin himself.

“Of all my counterparts around the world, Lloyd Austin is the person with whom I’ve been the most—but I’m really aware that I’m only one of 20 or 30 defense ministers around the world who would say the same thing. And that speaks volumes about the effort that Lloyd Austin has put in,” Minister for Defence Richard Marles said at a Nov. 17 press conference. “He has played the role we would expect of a secretary of defense of America.”