Photo By Petty Officer 1st Class Eduardo T Otero | 190716-N-KH151-0215 NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (July 16, 2019) Under Secretary of the...... read more read more
ROTA, Spain — In keeping with the National Defense Strategy’s line of effort of strengthening alliances, the Under Secretary of the Navy Thomas Modly visited Naval Station (NAVSTA) Rota and Madrid, Spain, July 15-17, during a multination trip to the Mediterranean region.
While in Rota, Modly met with Adm. Manuel Caramé, Admiral of the Spanish Fleet, Capt. David Baird, commanding officer of NAVSTA Rota, and Sailors from Commander, Task Force 68, Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8, and Forward-Deployed Regional Maintenance Center.
“What I found here is a very strong relationship between the Spanish and
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps,” said Modly. “It’s very encouraging to see that because that’s critical to our future security.”
Additionally at Rota, Modly engaged with Marines from the Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team Company Europe and toured the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78).
“I would like to thank everybody who’s working in Rota because it is an
assignment that takes them away from home for a period of time but it’s a really important job for the country,” said Modly. “It’s more than just the military engagement but it’s the opportunity to have our military members and their families with people from another country, a country that is important to us and has been friends of the United States for a long time. It’s important to maintain those relationships and that happens through the daily interactions that they have and how they represent the country while they’re here.”
After Rota, Modly traveled to Madrid to meet with officials from the U.S.
embassy and Spanish Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense to include the Director General for Foreign Policy and Security, Enrique Mora, Secretary General of Defense Policy, Adm. Juan F. Martínez Núñez and the Director General of Defense Policy, Elena Gómez.
“We can’t overestimate how important it is to continue to work with our
allies here to ensure that Europe is secure and that process really happens through relationships between our armed forces,” said Modly. “Strategically, in this particular part of the world, with the increased activity in the Mediterranean as well as up in the Baltics, having a naval presence with the very capable ships that we have here makes our job a lot easier.”
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 07.19.2019 03:19 |
| Story ID: | 332081 |
| Location: | ROTA, ES |
| Web Views: | 117 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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